The Path of a Beater
by Fallen Crest
Summary: Being the godson of Kayaba, Kirito feels that it is his responsibility to end the SAO death game. This is his adventure through the depths of SAO during these 2 years as a beater. Through quests, dealing with beta testers, and the overall craziness of a life trapped in a game, Kirito will stop at nothing to defeat his godfather while facing the resurfacing memories of his past.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **A/N: This is going to be about the death game SAO, but I am beginning with the beta test. It will probably only be a few chapters about it. I am doing this because I am going to involve the beta testers more in the death game. It is going to be about Kirito, but he is going to interact more with the beta testers after becoming a beater in the death game.**

 **As this is obviously an AU, I will taking a few liberties. Those liberties involve Kirito's backstory and some of the things with SAO. One of which you will see in the next chapter about SAO players being able to communicate with each other whether in the game or not.**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Prologue**

Kazuto Kirigaya, a thirteen year old teenager, stared at the café in front of him then looked back at his mother's car. In the backseat sat his cousin who was younger than him by a year. His mother sat in the driver's seat, smiling at Kazuto with her window down. "What are we doing?" He asked confused.

"I am taking Suguha shopping and you are going in there." Midori replied as she pointed at the café.

"Huh? Can't I go to the game store instead?" Kazuto whined as he sent a distasteful look towards the café.

Midori chuckled. "You could, but you will regret it." At her words, Kazuto looked back at her in confusion. "An old friend wants to meet you and give you something."

"Old friend?" Kazuto asked, feeling even more confused. He had very few friends, and even then, they were more like acquaintances than friends.

"Well, not one of yours." Midori replied before she looked down at her watch. "If he's not here yet, he will be here soon. Go in and sit down. He'll find you. Do you have your cell phone on you?"

Kazuto grumbled and pulled his dark blue phone out of his pocket. Though Midori worked a lot and wasn't around often, when she was around, she always made sure her kids were careful. She drilled it into their heads to never leave the house without their cell phone and if they were leaving to send her a text so she knew where and what they were doing. Kazuto guessed it was a precautionary method since they were still young and she wanted to know they were okay.

But to Kazuto, who was thirteen already, it felt a bit suffocating. It felt like she was still trying to hold his hand with everything he did. While he loved his mother greatly, he wanted the independence that let him leave the house without always having to let her know what he was doing.

"Good," Midori nodded her head. "Call me when you're done, kay?"

Kazuto nodded. "Kay, Mom."

Without a word to Suguha, Kazuto turned around and headed into the small café. His eyes scanned over the interior in boredom as he walked over to a random booth and sat down. There was not a slightest bit of interest in him about the café. All he wanted was to go to the game store or even the computer store. A café was extremely boring to him, but he came in here because he was curious as to what his mother meant by him regretting it if he didn't. What could be so interesting about who he was meeting?

Unlocking his phone, Kazuto saw it was 1:27 and sighed. He hit the power button on the side to put it in sleep mode and slid it on the table and looked out the window. Whoever was coming to meet him better not take long. Because of this person his mother made him leave his room today. He could be playing a game right now or researching about Sword Art Online.

Sword Art Online was a new game in production to be the first ever VRMMORPG. The idea of virtual playing sounded absolute amazing to him. It meant he would get to move around in the game and swing a weapon. He would get to experience the sensation of the fight. It was something never before done and it was getting hyped up a lot already, even though only the Alpha test had been done so far.

A beta test was starting soon for it and because of that, Kazuto applied online for the chance to be one of one thousand people to be a beta for it. He was sure a lot of people applied for this chance, but he was still hoping he got one of the spots.

To be able to dive into an actual game sounded completely thrilling and he would kill for this chance. Having never dived into a game before, he didn't know what to expect from a VRMMORPG, but he was sure it would be incredible. Argus, the company that created the Nervegear which allowed people to dive into virtual reality, was a powerful company so he was sure they were pulling out no stops to create the world of SAO. To be able to roam through it like it was real would be an unforgettable experience.

But from what he read, about 200,000 people actually owned a Nervegear and half of those people applied to be a beta tester for the first virtual reality game. It would be nearly impossible to get a spot in the beta test, especially when no one knew how they were choosing who the beta testers would be. The only thing he knew for sure was that it was publicized a lot in the gaming sites he frequent and the magazines he read that people could apply to be a beta tester for it. He really hope he got chosen to be one.

"Kazuto?"

At hearing his first name, which he found to be way too informal and impolite, Kazuto looked up and immediately did a double take. Standing right next to his booth was a man he absolutely admired: Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Nervegear and Sword Art Online. He looked just like he did in the pictures that Kazuto saw of him in the articles he read about the man. Having created the Nervegear and being the development director for the Sword Art Online project, he was featured a lot and was interviewed quite frequently to give news and updates about his projects.

Kayaba gave Kazuto a small smile as the teen seemed to have trouble finding any words to speak. "May I sit down, Kazuto?"

There was his first name again, but this time, Kazuto just blinked and nodded. "Y-yes." He nodded quickly. "Sure."

As Kazuto watched him take the seat opposite him, he noticed for the first time the wrapped package in his hands and blinked again. What did he bring with him that he needed to wrap up?

"Uh," Kazuto looked up at Kayaba's face, trying to decipher what it was he should do and what was going on.

"Can I take your orders?"

Kazuto jumped in surprise and looked up to see a waitress standing by their table. She was either very quiet or Kazuto was more dazed about seeing Kayaba seating across from him than he realized.

"I'll have a coffee." Kayaba told her before looking Kazuto. "And you? What would you like? Order anything you like. I am paying today."

"What?" Kazuto asked surprised. "Oh, uh, no, you don't need to do that."

"I insist, Kazuto." Kayaba replied firmly.

Kazuto blinked and nodded. He wasn't used to hearing such firm tones from adults. Maybe it was cause his parents were rarely home and he was so quiet and antisocial at school so his teachers didn't really take notice him. "Eh, then I'll have an iced tea."

The waitress nodded and excused herself.

A chuckle brought Kazuto's attention back to the older man. "You don't have to be so nervous, Kazuto. I don't bite."

A faint blush spread across Kazuto's cheeks. He took a moment to compose himself by closing his eyes and focusing on his breathing to calm his racing heart. This was not the time to freak out. The man he admired was seating right here. He could talk to him in person about everything he wanted to discuss. "Are you the old friend that my mom was telling me about?"

"That I am. By your reaction, I see you already know who I am, but I will say it anyway. I am Kayaba Akihiko." Kayaba introduced.

"And I'm Kirigaya Kazuto, though you seem to know that already." Kazuto replied. "You weren't even on the list of people I was expecting to show up when my mom dropped me off here."

Kayaba nodded with a smirk. "I imagine. I met you a few times when you were young, but I guess you don't remember them."

Kazuto looked up at him with eyes wide in shock. "What? How?"

"It was actually your father. Did you know that Hiroki was a game designer for Argus?" Kayaba asked, but he paused in explaining as the waitress returned with their drinks. He grabbed some creamer and sugar and mixed both into his coffee. "We attended the same school, but he was a few years ahead of me. Still, we were both interested in video games and ended up joining the same computer club which is where we met. We became fast friends and it turns out we both became game designers for Argus."

"Dad worked for Argus?" Kazuto said surprised before pausing and thinking back to what he just said. "Wait, you two were friends?!"

At Kazuto's excited tone, Kayaba couldn't help but laugh. When he spoke to Midori about meeting Kazuto, she had told him that he was a big fan of him, but he didn't think he would be this excited to meet him.

"Yes, Kazuto, quite close. We worked on the Nervegear together. It's a shame he couldn't live to see its completion." A sad look entered Kayaba's eyes as he turned them to stare out the window of the café.

At his solemn state, Kazuto lost his excitement and looked down at the table where he was clenching his hands. Sitting in front of him was a man that knew his father well. The only other people to know him were his adoptive parents. No one else seemed to realize he was adopted, or were too kind to say anything to him about it.

"I have been working on Sword Art Online for years to perfect it. Even while I was working on creating the Nervegear, I was designing SAO. It has been a dream of mine since I was a child." Kayaba continued as he broke out of his depressing thoughts of his deceased friend. He looked at the young boy across from him with a smile. "I told your dad of my dream of a floating castle. He laughed for a second then screamed he loved the idea."

"Did he help you with the game at all?" Kazuto asked curiously and a bit excited. If his dad helped on SAO…

Kayaba nodded. "We didn't do a lot of creating for the game before he died since we were still in the early designs of the game, but he did design a few floors, bosses, items, quests, and all that himself. I altered a few of them a bit, but essentially they are his ideas and in honor of him, I put each of his ideas in the game." He paused to take a sip of his coffee which was also to hide his amused smirk behind his cup as he said, "Maybe you will come across them."

"Huh?" Kazuto said confused as his mind processed that last sentence. With each passing second, his eyes got wider and wider and a huge grin split across his face. "Seriously?!"

The game developer slid the wrapped package across the table. Like a vulture, Kazuto snatched it up and eagerly ripped the wrapping paper away to see the case for Sword Art Online. Of course under those words it said 'beta version.' He was going to be a beta tester! As soon as he plugged this game in and started, he felt that his life would be complete.

Seeing Kazuto look like a child on Christmas as he ran his fingers over the case and the words on it, Kayaba chuckled and lowered his cup to the table. "Kazuto, let's be serious for a moment."

Against his desire, Kazuto drew his eyes away from the case of Sword Art Online to look at Kayaba. When he saw his lips drawn down into a frown and his eyes narrowed in concentration, Kazuto gingerly put the case down to give him his full attention. "What is it, Kayaba-san?"

"I met you quite a bit when you were younger, but perhaps you are too young to remember. But I remember. Even back then, you were so into technology and video games. It must be your parents' and Midori's fault." Kayaba said.

Kazuto laughed. "If I met you as a child, doesn't that mean it is also your fault?"

Kayaba raised a brow. "Cheeky kid, aren't you?"

Kazuto grinned for a second before falling serious. "What is this about?"

"Midori was named your godmother when you were born by Keiko's choice. Hiroki chose the godfather and that is me." Kayaba continued and with his words, he saw Kazuto go stiff in shock, though his eyes widened. "When your parents died, Midori and I had to decide which one of us would take you in. We both wanted to, but I work so much and so does Midori's husband. Midori was also getting back on the career track so we were all busy. In the end, it came down to the fact that Midori is your aunt and has a child of her own. We wanted you to be with family and with Suguha-chan so you had someone to grow up and play with, especially when your parents are gone with their long hours at work."

"I fell out of your life then. I got so busy with work that I never had time to come visit my own godson." Kayaba said before he frowned deeply. "But in all honestly, that was a lie I told myself."

Kazuto, whose eyes had fallen to the table, lifted them once more to stare at his godfather. "A lie?" He murmured. "What does that mean?"

"Bluntly, I was avoiding you, Kazuto." Kayaba said directly.

At those words, Kazuto looked out the window. Avoiding him, huh? Was he that troublesome to be around? When he first found out he was an orphan, it opened up so many questions to him. Who were the people that he was living with? Was he interfering with their family? Was he a burden? Why was he living with them? So many questions and no answers. Sure, he could get the answers by asking them, but he was too scared to. He didn't want to know the truth. The truth was what he wanted to escape from.

"It's not because I don't care about you, because I do, Kazuto. Seven years ago your parents were killed and to lose my best friend like that hurt so much. When Midori and I were discussing who was going to take you, and I saw you there, all I could see was Hiroki." Kayaba stopped and gave a dry laugh. "It's laughable. You look more like your mother than Hiroki, but the expression you were wearing at the time reminded me so much of him that it destroyed me inside. I was never going to see him again and when it was decided you would go with Midori, I was so relieved."

"Because you didn't have to deal with the burden of seeing your best friend all the time?" Kazuto asked softly.

"No!" Kayaba replied sharply, surprising Kazuto. "Because…when the applications to be a beta tester for Sword Art Online started to come in, I was so shocked to see one of the names to be yours. I was shocked, but I really should have expected it. You are Hiroki's son." A wistful looked crossed his face as he looked closely at Kazuto. "I say that, but I don't know anything about you because I stayed out of your life for seven years. It gives me the chance to learn who my godson has become. If I saw you constantly growing up, I would probably compare you to your parents and not see who you were growing up to be. But now, I think you're old enough to start to understand who you are and I want to see it."

"I see." Kazuto looked down at the game and tapped it with his fingers. "Is this a bribe so I will accept you more easily, Kayaba-san? Isn't it unfair to make me a beta tester just because I'm your godson?"

Kayaba laughed. "Perhaps, but you were also chosen because my team liked your experience in gaming. I didn't even tell them you were my godson and I wanted to give you the game personally until after they made the decision to pick you. So, no worries, Kazuto, you didn't get any special treatment there." His laugh disappeared as he smiled sadly at his godson. "If you don't want me in your life after I disappeared for seven years, I understand and I won't bother you again, Kazuto. I just wanted this one chance to see you once more."

The black haired teenager looked down with a frown. He moved his hand to the side to look at the cover of the game case. He saw a forest and in the distance in the background was the floating castle. Through his reading online, he thinks it is called Aincrad. This was the world Kayaba created. It was the world that his real father did a bit of work on before he was killed. His dad and Kayaba were friends in the past. Close enough friends that Hiroki would adopt the dream of Kayaba's to have a floating castle.

Despite that, his godfather ran from him because he didn't want to feel the pain of seeing Hiroki and Keiko in him. But could Kazuto really blame him for that? He was running as well. He has always loved video games, but when he found out he was an orphan, he quit kendo and dove into becoming an intense gamer who didn't like to socialize outside of games because he didn't want to face the truth of it.

They were both trying to escape the past, but now Kayaba found himself ready to face it by making the first move and meeting Kazuto.

Kazuto turned his hand over onto the game case and curled it into a fist. "Okay, I think I can understand why you did what you did, Kayaba-san." He nodded, mostly to himself. "Besides, I am a huge fan of yours so why shouldn't I accept you?"

Kayaba smiled. "Thank you, Kazuto. And stop calling me Kayaba-san. It makes me feel old."

"You are old." Kazuto said blankly.

"Cheeky brat." Kayaba teased. "No, call me what you did when you were younger."

Kazuto raised a brow. "And what was that?"

"Aki-nii-san." Kayaba replied easily.

"What?" Kazuto shouted in a whisper. "No way. I am never calling you that. You're my godfather. Shouldn't it be more like Uncle?"

Kayaba chuckled. "Perhaps, but a three year old doesn't care and will call me what he wants."

Kazuto blushed and shook his head. "No way am I calling you that."

"Something so simple can embarrass you?" Kayaba teased as he reached across the table and snagged the game from Kazuto and started to tug it away. "Then I guess you don't really want this."

"Ah!" Kazuto shouted as he snatched the case back. "Fine, Aki-nii-san!" When he noticed some of the other patrons of the café looking at them, Kazuto blushed deeper and bowed his head to avoid eye contact with them all. "Aki-nii-san is so cruel."

"No, it's just that you are a complete game addict, Kazuto." Kayaba replied amused.

"Says the one who spent years working on Nervegear and SAO." Kazuto retorted easily as he forced the blush away. He would not let this man get the best of him. Kazuto Kirigaya was the one who teased and embarrassed people, along with purposely getting them angry over the most trivial things because he thought it was hilarious. No one did it to him.

Kayaba chuckled. "True. I hope you enjoy SAO, Kazuto. The beta test starts in one week. Have fun with it."

 **A/N: To make it work with Hiroki being friends with Akihiko, the ages of them have been played with. Akihiko is a couple of years older than he is in the anime and Kirito's parents were made a bit younger. Let's just say when Kirito was born, they were 20 and died around 26. It will be explained in a later chapter, but Kirito was six when they died, instead of being an infant. I am simply changing the backstory of him a bit. And I liked the idea of Kirito having a connection to Akihiko which is why I made him Kirito's godfather.**

 **Please review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **A/N: By the way, as of now, there will be no pairings in this story. I decided to not make Asuna and Kirito a couple, mostly because it's not really one of my favorites. I would have preferred something more like SinonxKirito. But I do like Asuna and Kirito as friends so they will meet and become friends at some point in the story.**

 **Another reason for no couples/romance is because it is not a genre I write so I am not really good at it. So I will not butcher the couples by trying to write it.**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Chapter 1**

Exhilarated.

That was how he would describe how he felt right now if he could only use one word. He felt so alive right now as he stood in the arena, a smirk plastered on his face as he stared at his opponent waiting for the match to start.

Just a month ago the closed beta test for the new game, Sword Art Online, had begun. They were halfway through the beta test, and just the other day they had reached the sixth floor. That had been an amazing feeling as his blade tore through the boss on the fifth floor and he got the Last Attack bonus. That was the third time he got it. He was pretty sure the other beta testers hated him for that, but he didn't really care. He was a solo player after all.

And now, just two days after making it to the sixth floor, they were in a fighting arena on this floor. They were having a player vs player tournament today. It was the final round, and Kirito finally got to face off against the player he wanted to fight all this time. He was a swordsman just like him and some said that he was probably one of the ones with the fastest reaction time in this game.

It excited Kirito. He could finally test himself against Redwing. Just how far could he go against one of the players considered to be one of the top best of SAO? He says one of the best because Kirito knew that he was also considered to be one of the best as well.

The players who had already lost or didn't participate and just wanted to watch were already sitting in the bleachers, eagerly waiting for the match to start. Kirito could see Ridwig, another top player and leader of a guild, sitting with some of his guild mates in the front row. Behind him he could hear another player calling out the bets for the fight and how much the pot was at.

Kirito closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. He forced himself to block out the sounds of the audience, to forget they were even there. All of his focus needed to be on the player in front of him. This was it. This was his only reality right now. It was just him and Redwing in Sword Art Online, fighting for the title of the best PvP in the beta test. Nothing else mattered right now.

When Kirito opened his eyes, he found the duel challenge from Redwing and accepted it before selecting a total loss duel. They would fight to the death. Once he did that, his hand tightened its grip on the one handed sword he used. A countdown of sixty seconds between them, but Kirito didn't notice.

The air was thick with anticipation while the crowd eagerly waited for the countdown to reach zero. Redwing fell into a stance with his sword pulled back in the air above his shoulder. Kirito fell down into his own stance with his left foot moving farther back than his right. He let his sword point towards the ground, almost looking like it was being held lazily. But anyone who has watched Kirito fight knew not to underestimate him just because he took a strange stance.

His breathing evened out and he locked his eyes onto Redwing, seeing nothing but him. It was like he was standing in a black void and the only thing he could see inside it was his target. And as for his hearing, the sound of the timer still counting down was the only sound that penetrated his ears. All he could feel was the slight wind hitting his face and the sword held tightly in his grip.

The timer hit zero.

Not a single moment was wasted.

The moment the words "DUEL" flashed between them, Kirito kicked off the ground and ran at Redwing, who kicked off at the same time.

They met in the middle.

Redwing's sword came flashing down in a diagonal slash while Kirito's came upwards in a diagonal slash. Their two blades met, and for a moment all that happened was a loud metallic sound ringing throughout the stadium with the two players frozen in place with their swords pushing against each other.

Only for a moment though, then both players were spinning around each other as they broke apart. Kirito fell into a half crouch afterwards, completely amazed at the power of Redwing's blow. His arm actually felt like it was tingling from the force of it alone.

Kirito quickly spun around, not rising from his half-crouch. As he spun, he turned his sword so the flat surface of it met Redwing's attack that was coming down on him. He put his hand on the blade to help resist the pressing down force from Redwing's attack. Either Redwing's recovery time was a lot faster than his or his attack was weaker than he thought and it did nothing to slow down his opponent. Whatever the case, Kirito was not going to focus on it right now.

Instead, he pushed his foot harder into the ground and then flew up. As he did, he snapped his wrist with as much force as he could to push Redwing's sword away from him. He then twisted his wrist around to hold his sword backwards and slashed it forward like that, but Redwing jumped back, just narrowly avoiding Kirito's blade.

Kirito spun his sword in his hand to fix his grip then charged at Redwing, who fixed his own grip and lunged at Kirito. They met in the center and their swords clashed against each other again. They broke apart and clashed again.

Kirito gritted his teeth as he felt his foot sliding back from the power behind the attack. Refusing to lose to this power, Kirito pushed down harder on the ground and once he found his footing, he pushed back harder against Redwing's sword. They were locked in a deadlock, so close to one another. Their eyes met and both of them smirked at each other.

And in the next moment, their swords were scraping against the sharp edges of each other as they both escaped in opposite directions.

The two swordsmen turned to face each other as they fell into stances and stared at one another for one…two…

Kirito's eyes caught sight of Redwing's foot moving.

…three…four…

Redwing's sword fell into the familiar position for a "Rage spike."

…five…six…

Ridwing's sword began to glow blue.

…seven…eight…

Kirito moved his sword to "vertical" to counter.

…nine…ten….

Kirito felt his skill beginning to activate.

…eleven…twelve…seconds

Redwing moved first, but Kirito was only half a second behind him.

They met in the center again. Redwing's sword came charging forward while Kirito's came down from the sky for a slash. Both of them twisted their feet around to dodge the other's attack.

A tearing sound met Kirito's ears and with it came the uncomfortable feeling in his nerves that told him he was hit. But he didn't stop his momentum. He continued forward, determined to hit Redwing with his sword. They spun around each other but Kirito's blade still slashed through Redwing's cheek, leaving a virtual orange gash there.

They were then passed each other, backs to each other. Kirito looked down at his left arm to see an orange virtual gash in his upper arm and a cut in his jacket. "Tch," He grumbled as he pulled at the cut in his jacket.

Kirito turned back around to face Redwing, who spun around as well. The orange gash on his cheek made Kirito smirk in satisfaction. He got in a hit, but it wasn't enough to defeat Redwing. Well, that was fine, it was more fun this way.

Without wasting a moment, the two players lunged at each other again. Kirito's eyes caught sight of Redwing's swing coming down and quickly sidestepped it and lunged forward with his sword. Redwing immediately blocked it and pushed forward again. His sword moved so fast that Kirito barely managed to block it in time.

After that came a rain of blows and blocks from both players. They were moving so fast that it was getting hard for the audience to see. The sounds of metal clashing, the sight of sparks flashing in the air from their swords' collisions, and the sight of torn fabric floating down to the ground before they burst into polygons was all that told the players that hits were being made.

Kirito felt the pressure. Redwing was a formidable opponent. He was fast and strong and his sword held great strength in it. But Kirito's sword was also powerful. He was by no means weak. So whenever he felt himself being pushed back, Kirito doubled his effort to forcing them into a lock then pushed Redwing back as well. His body was tingling all over with the uncomfortable feeling running through his nerves from the attacks that hit him.

But he would not falter from that uncomfortable feeling alone. His eyes followed everything. He watched Redwing's sword. He watched Redwing's eyes. He watched his feet. He watched anything that would tell him what Redwing was planning to do. His eyes shifted between them so fast it was amazing he was even able to block the sword that was coming to impale him.

But he was far from perfect. Which is why after he pushed Redwing's sword to the side to avoid being impaled, his own sword started to come in for an upwards slash and he missed it. He missed seeing Redwing twist his wrist after getting it pushed to the side. And he missed seeing the sword come in for a diagonal slash from the ground. It wasn't until he saw a glint of the sword the realized his folly. His sword just scraped against Redwing's side and was starting to pull up towards his chest when Kirito felt Redwing's sword hit his lower left side. He felt the uncomfortable, horrible feeling of the sword dragging up through his body to his right side. As the attack finished, Kirito's sword was ripped from Redwing's own chest before it could finish the attack as Kirito was thrown backwards, a blue light ripping from his chest from the sword skill.

Kirito hit the ground as the light disappeared, leaving behind a long orange virtual gash on his chest as Kirito rolled across the ground, sword slipping from his grasp. Breathing heavily, Kirito struggled to push himself up with his trembling arms. He noticed his health bar falling into the yellow. Coughing, Kirito forced himself back to his feet, barely pausing to snatch up his sword.

Still struggling to breath, Kirito grabbed his chest where the attack hit. He could still fell that sword pulling through his body. No pain was felt, but the other sensations in the game were amazing. The creator, Akihiko Kayaba, was a genius to be able to create something like this.

Kirito lowered his hand from his chest and refocused his attention on Redwing who was charging at him. He quickly sidestepped an attack before bringing up his foot and slamming it into Redwing's side to throw him off balance. As far as Kirito knew, there was no martial arts skill in this game, but players still used their limbs to fight if only to throw off their target a bit.

And it usually worked since they never expected such moves. As Redwing stumbled, Kirito's sword glowed blue with the sword skill and it flew forward to pierce him in the stomach. Kirito pressed on forward as he watched Redwing's health fall from 65% down to 60%. And it didn't stop there. With his sword still shoved into Redwing's stomach, his health would continue to drop, but obviously no sane player would let that continue to happen.

Redwing pushed a hand against Kirito's shoulder to shove him away, but Kirito refused to leave and continued to push his sword farther into Redwing's stomach. But when he saw Redwing's sword coming down, Kirito quickly jumped backwards, sword being yanked from Redwing's stomach as he did that.

When he was a safe distance away, Kirito looked at his health to see himself at 56%, then he looked up to see Redwing's HP gauge to be down to 55%. Kirito gritted his teeth. Still more than half of his health to go. It would be so much easier to just cut him in half and be done with it, but there was no way Redwing would allow such an attack to happen.

Kirito jumped back into the fight and came down from the air with his sword swinging down. It collided with Redwing's and for a moment they stared at each other before Redwing's powerful swing sent Kirito flying back through the air. He flipped in the air and landed in a crouch before he shot back up and charged at Redwing. As he got closer, he suddenly slid on the ground and under Redwing's legs, surprising the player who was unable to stop his attack.

Now behind Redwing, Kirito pushed himself up, spinning as he did and bringing up his sword up for a "vertical slash." His blade ripped through Redwing's back, leaving a nice long, deep virtual gash. Kirito didn't watch how much Redwing's HP depleted from that attack. Instead he jumped back and put his sword in the position for "vertical arc."

Redwing stumbled for a moment before he spun around to face Kirito.

Kirito shot forward. As he reached Redwing, he noticed his movements to be slower than usual. Eyes narrowing, Kirito shifted his attention to Redwing's face to notice a smirk there and the resignation in those eyes.

Kirito's sword slashed down from Redwing's left shoulder to his right side. His sword then pulled through from the body and reached towards the ground. With the system assist, Kirito felt his wrist readjust as the sword came up to hit Redwing's right side and reach up to the middle of his chest to make a "V." His sword ripped free as Redwing got thrown back. The blue "V" glowed bright blue, showcasing the sign for victory before Redwing's body burst into polygons.

The only one left standing in the arena was Kirito, who arms, chest, and legs were covered in orange virtual gashes with his sword glinting in the sunlight.

But Kirito didn't rejoice. He won the PvP tournament, but there was no longer any excitement or exhilarated thrill for him. Instead, there was nothing but anger in replace of it. His arm automatically swung down his sword the way he usually did as he completed a battle before he slid the sword back into the sheath on his back.

His eyes barely looked at his health to see it was at 50%. He didn't bother to drink a health potion. All he did was spin around and march out of the stadium, seething with absolute anger. Knowing that SAO exaggerated emotions, he would not be surprised if steam was coming off of him with the amount of anger he felt.

Kirito didn't hear the cheers from the fight. All he heard was the raging, rapid heartbeat in his ears that came from anger and adrenaline left over from the fight. He raced through the city on the sixth floor, not stopping once. He easily navigated around shops and players as he raced to the teleport gate.

The moment his feet hit it, he shouted, "Teleport: Town of Beginnings!"

A blue sphere wrapped around him and he vanished from the sixth floor a second later. Almost immediately, he appeared on the teleport gate in the starting city of Aincrad.

Kirito jumped down from teleport gate plaza and ran through the town. Having been here enough times in the past month, he knew the fastest and shortest way to get to his destination. He weaved through players and NPCs, effortlessly not hitting anyone or anything.

With how fast he was moving, it didn't take him long to reach his destination: the Black Iron Palace.

"What the hell was that?" Kirito demanded as he stepped into the Chamber of Resurrection, glaring at the newly revived Redwing. After a player got killed, they had to wait a few minutes before being revived in the Chamber of Resurrection on the first floor.

Redwing looked over at Kirito with a raised brow. "Did you not even stick around for your celebration?"

"What is there to celebrate?" Kirito demanded angrily. "That last moment in the fight, you deliberately slowed your reaction and let me hit you! It's not a win I want when my opponent freely gives it to me! Don't you dare look down on me like that, Redwing! I wanted a fair fight where I got to test my skills. I didn't want a win handed out to me on a silver platter." His hands closed into tights fists at his sides as he glared at the other player. "So why? Why the hell did you throw the fight? Do you believe me to be so weak that I could only win if you threw the fight?"

Redwing turned to face Kirito fully. "On the contrary, Kirito. I would have to be a fool to look down on you."

"Then why?" Kirito growled.

"My guild betted against me in the fight, and the fight had a huge surge of money going into it. It would be a very nice prize for us. And if they bet on me, there was a chance I would lose and we would lose all the money we bet. We wagered I had a sixty-five percent chance of beating you so to keep from losing all the money we decided to put down on the bet, we bet on you." Redwing explained.

"And you," Kirito said, whole body trembling with uncontrolled rage. "You threw the fight for such a greedy reason! After all," He sneered angrily. "It's just a single match in a virtual game. It means nothing! That's what you think, isn't it?" His hand flew up to grab the hilt of his sword. He wanted to kill this man. But then he remembered there were in a safe zone and growled as he dropped his hand. "Disrespectful! That is what you made our fight out to be!"

With that said, Kirito spun around and swiped his hand down to open his menu. He immediately hit logout and when a new screen popped up asking if he wanted to logout, he paused and looked back over Redwing. For a moment it looked like he was going to speak, but it passed and his finger slammed into the circle.

 ***Kazuto's Room***

Back in his room, Kazuto Kirigaya ripped off his Nervegear in anger. The thirteen year old has never felt such a strong mix anger and humiliation before. How dare Redwing and his guild manipulate their fight like that just so they could earn some quick cash? It made the whole situation feel dishonorable.

Kazuto put his Nervegear away after getting off his bed. He went back over to it to look at the game for SAO. A smirk graced his face as he thought about the game. Ever since he started playing a month ago, he couldn't get enough of it. The feeling of swinging a sword, of moving his body while he fought, was absolutely incredible. It was nothing like kendo when he practiced years ago. This feeling was completely different. It was an amazing experience.

His smirk turned into a scowl. Except for dealing with the players. He didn't have a problem with them. They were good acquaintances for an antisocial loner like him, but he didn't like being looked down upon in his duels with them. He hated having his wins handed to him like Redwing did. How was he supposed to be happy about his achievement of defeating him if it wasn't a real win? The simple answer was that he couldn't.

He dropped the game onto his bed and left his bedroom. Walking down the hall to the bathroom, he moved as silently as he could so his sister wouldn't hear him up and about. By no means did he hate his little sister, but he just couldn't be around her anymore. It was almost four years ago when he found out that his sister wasn't his sister and his parents weren't his parents. And no one had bothered to tell him this truth. He had to find out by logging into the national registry where he found his erased records. It was a huge blow to him to find out that what he always believed was a lie.

If his parents weren't his real parents, then who was? What happened to them? Who were the people he was living with? So many questions had filled up his mind after he found out. His ten year old mind at the time just froze in shock before all those questions assaulted him. It led him to asking his parents if it was true.

And it was.

The life he grew up in was a lie and he didn't want to know it. The perfect family they appeared to be was a lie. They weren't his real parents or his real sister. It just burned him so much to know it was a lie that he started to push away from them. He quit kendo, which forced Suguha to train twice as hard to cover for him. To escape the reality of his family being a lie, he got into online gaming. At least online no one knew anyone or anything about anyone. It was the world he fell in love with because he could escape the confusion and hurt he felt from discovering the truth. Over time, it just became so much easier to jump into his games to escape the pain than to work on trying to figure out how he should feel about not being a real son of his family. He didn't want to think about it which is why he pushed them away.

Though he still loved them so much. They were his aunt, uncle, and cousin. He grew up with them as his parents and sister. That wouldn't change. What did change was his relationship with Suguha became more distant and strained because he wasn't sure how to act around her anymore. She had no idea of the truth so he was at a complete lost.

Kazuto pushed open the bathroom door and came to a stop in front of the mirror. He stared at his reflection from his slightly long black hair which was slightly messy from wearing the Nervegear for hours to his black eyes. Then there was his face which looked so delicate, with so little masculinity in it. He ran a finger over his chin with a frown. It was definitely strange to see his face after being in SAO for hours and having a different face. In SAO, his avatar had a much more masculine face with narrowed ice blue eyes and spiky black hair. **[1]** To keep from being hindered in the game, his avatar's height was very close to his real life height. It was only a few inches taller than him right now. Despite the height of a teenager, the avatar definitely looked much older than the thirteen year old he really was.

The virtual world was a world where he could be someone that he wasn't. He was strong there, one of the strongest players in SAO. That strength was something he took great pride in. His speed, power, strength…it was all something that he loved. It wasn't like the real world. The virtual world was home to Kirito, who was so strong. He could be someone who he wasn't in the real world.

And yet, people took it for granted. It's just a game. It's just a single match. The whole idea was disrespectful. As a hard core gamer, as Kirito who lived there, he couldn't stand it when people looked down on the world. It's just game so why shouldn't he throw a fight if it means a big loot was coming into the guild?

Kazuto scoffed at that very notion. His honor as a swordsman and a player in SAO were ripped away from him when Redwing stopped fighting back. That was no win, not to him anyway.

He bowed his face over the sink and started to splash water over his eyes. He washed away the drowsiness he felt from playing for hours. Playing SAO was mentally exhausting, especially when he spent so much time fighting. He had to watch closely to how his opponents fought and counter their moves. It was tiring to focus his eyes for so long.

Once he felt more awake, he dried his face and left the bathroom.

After making himself a sandwich for a late lunch and eating it quickly, Kazuto went back to his bedroom. As he entered, he noticed a light flashing on his monitor and went over to his desk which housed the three connected monitors that were powered by the computer he made when he was in elementary school.

He sat down in his computer chair as he turned his monitors on. His screens flickered to life a second later. As they came to life, a window popped up with "SAO" in the center of it and in the background was a screen shot of Aincrad shown from a distance. Under "SAO" was a message saying that he got a private message from a player who was logged into the game. If he wanted to read and answer, then he would have to input his username and password in the appropriate boxes below.

This was an interesting feature that the beta testers found from the game. If someone sent a private message in the game, it was received in the game. But if the player who the message was for wasn't logged in, it was possible to receive the message on a computer as long as the player set it up to be possible. A lot of beta testers, to his knowledge, did do this. It was a convenient way to stay in contact and to send messages about raids if one wanted to get involved, or in Kirito's case, if someone wanted to hire him for a raid. He didn't join guilds or parties because he was a solo player that acted as a mercenary. So it was real convenient for him to set up the messaging system outside the game so if he wasn't logged in because he was studying or some other rare reason, he could receive them here. The messages he got were usually to ask him to join a raid group for a boss fight, scout out a dungeon for a raid group, or he was getting a message from Argo or any other info brokers about someone wanting to buy something from him or they had info for him that he wanted but he had to log in to get it so they could get paid for it.

When Kirito first set it up, he wasn't sure if he would like it or ever use it. But it was easy to set up so he did, and he found that he really enjoyed using it. It allowed him to always stay connected to SAO. Whether he was out or somewhere else in the house, he could always get on as long as he had his phone with him so he would always be connected to SAO. It was a lot more convenient and safer than giving players inside the game their e-mail addresses. The less info he had to give these strangers, the better.

Deciding it was worth it to check the message out, Kazuto entered his username and password before hitting enter. Once he did that, the display changed to his friend list in the game. The list was already down to the R section with Redwing's name glowing orange to show the message was from him. A green circle to the right of his name was there to show that he was logged in.

If he was logged in, but in a dungeon, the circle would be red. If he was logged out, it would be black. When they were in dungeons, messages couldn't be received or sent which was why the alert was there. It was even possible to receive messages from people not on his friend list, but only if he went to his settings and allowed outside messages from strangers to come through, which he did not.

A scowl immediately set onto Kazuto's face when he red Redwing's name. What more could he possible want? Clicking on Redwing's name, a message immediately popped up in another window.

 _Hey Kirito,  
Log back in. We can't have the party to celebrate your win without you there.  
I'll make it up to you. We can have another duel before the beta test ends. _

_Redwing_

Kazuto rolled his eyes and went to close the message when his computer beeped and a new message icon began blinking. He closed Redwing's message and found that the new message icon was also blinking by Redwing's name in his friend's list.

 _Kirito, man,_

 _LOG BACK ON! I seriously think Ridwig will murder me if you don't return for the party. He seems to think I did something which made you leave without celebrating your win!  
I swear I will make up the disrespect I made you feel if you get your ass back here soon. _

Kazuto rolled his eyes. Ridwig should kill him. It will be an entertaining show at least. Those two sure were strange. Half the time he couldn't understand if they liked each other or not. They were either at each other's throat or acting like the best of friends.

As he was contemplating the weirdness of those two, he got another message alert. This caused his friend list to automatically scroll down to Ridwig's name since the message came from him. He clicked on it and the window with the message popped open.

 _Return to Aincrad at once or I will make your life a living hell the next time I see you._

Kazuto sweat dropped. There was no doubt in his mind that Ridwig was the one who sent that message. Ridwig was a good player and pretty cool, but he could be pretty demanding at time. He seemed to enjoy acting like he was in complete control of him. Kazuto knew Ridwig acted like that to him because it annoyed the hell out of him. Ridwig knew not to push it too far because when he did it would end up with him having a sword in his stomach. Kazuto really didn't care if he got stuck as an orange player for a couple days because of it. It was always worth it to see Ridwig's expression when he did and after that Ridwig would push his commanding attitude back and adopt his calm, cool personality for a few days. Then it would start all over again.

Kazuto leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. Now, what should he do? Should he listen to Ridwig and return to the game or should he ignore him just to annoy him which will cause another one of their conflicts where Kirito just might attack him again.

His eyes drifted to his bedroom door. He was actually bored and partially logged out to eat something and partially because he was furious with Redwing. Besides, he didn't want to chance running into Suguha. He still didn't know how to approach her after what he found out four years ago.

Returning to Aincrad it was then.

 **A/N: [1] I changed the appearance of Kirito's avatar from the one he had in the first episode.**

 **I actually want to do a lot on the beta test, but it is not the point of this story so it will only be a few chapters about it. Probably only two more.**

 **I remember Kirito mentioning to Leafa before that he used to think like other gamers and didn't have a problem committing crimes in games or anything else so I figured this could be one of those things. He doesn't change his gaming attitude until the SAO death game.**

 **Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Chapter 2**

"Congratulations!"

Kirito blankly stared at the party in front of him that was taking place on the sixth floor of Aincrad. If he knew it was going to be this big of a party to celebrate the end of the PvP tournament and the winner, he would have never logged back in and done some work on improving his computer which he has been putting off in favor of playing SAO. But now, he sees that it would have been a lot better than being around all of these people. He wasn't good in social situations.

"Come on, Kirito. Cheers." A grinning player said as he wrapped an arm around Kirito's neck and lifted up his silver goblet.

"I hope you get blasted with a harassment warning." Kirito said, lifting his own goblet in greeting back.

"That's not a cheer at all." Henrik said, but he did get the message and released Kirito's neck and backed up from him. He stood a couple feet away from Kirito now, looking down at the shorter player with narrowed dark green eyes. He also had short orange hair with slightly long bangs that would normally fall over his eyes if he didn't have his black bandanna wrapped around his head. His armor consisted of black and red chest plates and bracers with white gloves under them. On the back of his bracers was the symbol of his guild which was a roaring dragon. Below his armor was a short sleeve red shirt and with it he wore gray pants which were tucked into his black boots. His two handed sword rested in a sheath at his side. "And here I was trying to be all friendly today too."

Kirito shot him a glare. "I have nothing to say to anyone from the Dragon's Kings guild." In a big contrast to Henrik, Kirito was dressed in black pants which were tucked into his black boots. The top of his body consisted of a light blue shirt with a silver metal chest plate, which was the only armor he wore. He wore a black jacket over it and black fingerless gloves. The one handed sword he used was strapped onto his back. Tucked snuggly in the back of his belt was a set of throwing picks.

Throwing picks required a blade throwing skill which was something he didn't consider ever using, but Argo introduced him to throwing picks, at a price of course. He decided to give them a try, and found them rather weak for injuring enemies. Though weak for injuring, he did find some uses for them. Once such use was them being a distraction in his fights. It was easy to conceal such a small weapon on his person so it was easy to whip one out in a fight to distract his opponent.

"Redwing did say you figured it out. Being as skilled as you are, I'm not surprised you did." Henrik replied, soundly almost apologetically. "But we needed the money."

"Oh yeah?" Kirito scoffed. "What is so important that you needed a large sum of money so soon?"

Henrik looked around at the party to make sure no one was paying special attention to them before he leaned down closer to Kirito and said quietly, "We're preparing to hit the sixth floor boss with only our guild. We need the money to get new armor and upgrade our weapons for it."

The mercenary looked sharply at Henrik. A raid on the sixth floor boss without any of the other guilds to help? Was the Dragon's Kings guild full of insane idiots? There was no point in doing something so insane. Unless…Kirito looked towards where Redwing, the leader of Dragon's Kings, and Ridwig, the leader of the Holy Knights Allegiance, were arguing about who had the strongest guild in Aincrad.

That would definitely be it. Ever since the third floor where the quest to make a guild became available, those two have been at each other's throat about being better than the other. They were constantly dueling each other for the title of the strongest among them, and now they were fighting about having the strongest guild. For example, Ridwig and his party completed the quest first and became the Holy **Knights** Allegiance. Redwing decided to one up him by becoming the leader of the Dragon's **Kings** when his party completed the quest.

And ever since then, it has felt like a guild war between them. They were constantly recruiting people for their guilds. They needed to be the strongest, biggest guild apparently. The last Kirito heard, which was a week ago, the Holy Knights Allegiance had 124 people in their guild while Dragon's Kings had 100 people. Considering there were only 1000 players in the beta test, Kirito found those numbers to be outstanding, but of course, it wasn't enough for those two.

No doubt going after a floor boss alone was Redwing idea of proving that his guild was the strongest.

"That's some good info, Henrik." Kirito said, giving the other player his full attention once more as a steely glint entered his eyes. "Who's to say I won't sell it to some info brokers or even directly to the Holy Knights Allegiance? I'm sure I can make a lot of money with such info."

"Come on, Kirito." Henrik said as he took a sip of his drink. "I told you that in confidence of our friendship."

"What friendship is that?" Kirito retorted. "As far as I'm concerned, Dragon's Kings is on the blacklist."

"Don't be like that. Besides, if you sell the info, then we won't be able to hire you for the raid." Henrik pointed out.

"Oh?" Kirito asked, raising his goblet to his lips with a smirk. "And here I thought Dragon's Kings were going to fight the boss with just their guild."

"Without the strongest mercenary?" Henrik asked in mock horror. "Why, we would be insane!"

Kirito snorted. "The fact that you want to attempt this is insane."

"No, we have plenty of strong players in our guild. I'm not sure if we have enough players who are strong enough for us to win, but it is definitely better than if a certain mercenary decides to solo a boss." Henrik shot a pointed look at Kirito.

"I never did that!" Kirito protested annoyed, glaring at the third in command of Dragon's Kings.

"But I bet you thought of trying it." Henrik replied with a knowing smirk that aggravated Kirito to no ends. "Just think of the fame that would come with being able to solo a boss."

Kirito snarled silently. He would never admit it, but the idea had crossed his mind. The challenge of it sounded awesome. "How insane do you think I am, Henrik?"

"Fourth floor boss fight, you jumped into the air and slammed your feet into a pillar to use as a launching point for when you charged at the boss and got the last attack bonus." Henrik answered dryly. "I don't know why we let you into the raids with how you always steal the last attack bonus."

"To be fair," Kirito held up a finger. "I've only gotten that three times."

"Out of five boss raids!" Henrik retorted.

Kirito shrugged and took a long drink of his beverage. It was a special type of wine that would raise agility by two points. He wasn't sure who brought it or where they got it, but he wanted to know where they found such a thing. Maybe the reason he never heard of it before was because it was found on this floor. He would have to look around later.

"You're earning yourself a bad reputation." Henrik said, shaking his head.

Kirito gave him an unconcerned look and wandered away from the swordsman. He didn't particularly care about angering the other players because he was stealing the last attack bonus. There were 100 bosses in Aincrad. They've only completed 5% of the game if they were going by floors. That 5% wasn't a lot so him stealing the last attack bonus from three of the bosses seemed so insignificant. Instead of focusing on the last attack bonus of the past floors, they should be more concerned about the rare item from the higher floor bosses.

Or maybe they were focused on those higher boss raids and were planning ways to keep him from getting them since he was getting well known for stealing the last attack.

This thought made Kirito send a subtle look towards the guilds that were gathered for the after party of the PvP tournament. He wondered if he should start fearing for his life at this point or wait until he noticed anything suspicious. Or maybe he would even most likely psyche himself out first.

"Kii-bou!"

Kirito almost screamed in surprise. So focused on the guilds that just might be planning his demise, he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings.

Just managing to keep the scream from escaping his lips, since it would not be cool of the PvP tournament winner to be screaming like a scaredy-cat, Kirito looked over his shoulder to see Argo stepping out from the shadows of a building. Geez, no wonder he didn't notice her despite his focus being elsewhere. Not only was she hiding in the shadows, Kirito knew she had a very high hiding skill. He didn't know how high, but he knew it was high. Like how Kirito chose to be a solo player who acts as a mercenary, Argo was a solo player, though she sometimes joined parties if it benefitted her, and an information broker. Her hiding skill assisted her in her job of gathering info, whether it be from being out in the field or spying on players. She was sneaky like that. Players could be sitting in a corner booth in a tavern talking about secrets and if they weren't careful, Argo could be hiding nearby listening to them to get any good info.

Though she did this, she never told anyone what info she had. She might spread rumors to get interested players to come to her to buy the info, but that was as far as her marketing of info went. Though, of course, she did it in a way that people didn't know the rumor begins with her. But Kirito knew. Kirito knew the truth of her rumors and skills as an info broker. After all, they would sometimes work closely together so he learned a lot.

"I told you not to call me that, Argo." Kirito said, but Argo just grinned at him with her red eyes shining with mirth. She had shoulder length dark brown hair with half of it pulled back into a ponytail. Covering each of her pale cheeks were three maroon whiskers which only just appeared a couple a weeks ago. Unlike most girl players that Kirito met, she didn't wear a skirt. Instead she chose to where gray pants with a light green tunic and a black belt wrapped around her waist. She had on black leather fingerless gloves and a simple pair of black shoes. Her arms and the lower part of her legs were covered in bandages. Hanging from the left side of her waist was her weapon of choice which were claws and on the right side of her belt was a set of throwing picks. Resting over her nimble form was a tan cloak which had the hood up to cover her face.

"It looks like you got some good info from Henrik." Argo said, getting right to the point.

Kirito just sighed in reply. So she saw them, but wasn't hiding close enough by to listen in on them. "And now you want to pay me for the info, is that how it is? Which one of us is the information broker again?"

"Don't be like that, Kii-bou. This is how information gets spread." Argo replied dismissively. "So how much are you willing to sell the info for?"

Kirito's finger tapped against the edge of the top of his goblet as he thought about that. He could sell the information and get some good money for it. Or he could keep the info to himself and the Dragon's Kings would hire him to help them with the raid where he could get paid and maybe get some great items in return. Then again, that could be a lie about hiring him for it and they already angered him earlier today. This could be some nice revenge. Sell the info, spread rumors about it, then have the Holy Knight's Allegiance pay Argo for the information and get a nice show in return. He wondered if Redwing and Ridwig would attempt to murder each other again.

It was such a hard choice. This is what he gets for having no true loyalty to anyone. He was only loyal to those who hired him for a job, and after the job was over, he was back to being on his own. This meant that when he was in situations like this, he never knew just who he should screw over, and it was so hard to tell where he would get the most benefit. Clearly, this was Henrik's fault for giving him the info in the first place. He would have to hit him later.

It was easy for Argo. All she had to do was sell information or sometimes buy information she wanted, like this time. Other times, she found the information during her adventures through Aincrad or from spying. What she cared about was the money. Nothing else was of a concern to her.

But for Kirito it was. While any player could hire him for a job, if he screwed over his "employers" too hard or too many times, they would stop hiring him. And the Holy Knights Allegiance and Dragon's Kings were his biggest employers. It just goes to figures that they are also enemies. It put him in a tight spot when he had information like he did now.

And he couldn't lose his employers! Henrik called him the strongest mercenary, but there were other mercenaries in the game. If he pissed off his biggest employers, it would lead to them focusing more on hiring other solo player mercenaries and it would destroy his reputation. The smaller guilds would hear about his reputation and would not hire him even for a simple job like scouting for them in dungeons or fields.

And if he told Argo, she could sell the info to the Holy Knights Allegiance. And if the Dragon's Kings found out that the Holy Knights Allegiance found out about their plans, they would buy info from Argo to find out how they knew and they would discover it was him who told. And that was why Argo was known as the Rat. She really had no problem selling any type of information, which is why players had to be careful when dealing with her.

"Kii-bou?"

Kirito's brow twitched a bit. "I know nothing!" He said quickly before drowning the rest of the drink and running off in the other direction, not even slowly down as he slammed his goblet on a table that was set up for the party.

"He's gone." Argo said surprised, blinking for a moment before turning away to gather any information she could. She didn't care if it was a party. Information gathering came first.

Kirito sharply turned down an alley and ran away from the bright lights and loud voices. The shadows of the alley took over his form, hiding him from sight of anyone who might be watching.

When he got a safe distance from the party, though he had no idea of why he was running from it, Kirito slowed to a stop and opened his menu. His eyes glanced over the time to see it was five thirty. Normally he wouldn't care about the time, but his mother told him that she would be home early tonight and he wanted to make her dinner. She tried to come home early at least one day a week to spend time with her kids. And because she worked so hard all day, he wanted to make it easy for her and prepare dinner. She shouldn't have to make dinner after working hard all day.

And though he wasn't great at cooking, he knew enough about the basics to be able to make something simple for her. It was something he learned to do since his mother was always working late and his dad wasn't home often because he traveled a lot for his job. In that situation, the best thing to do was learn how to cook.

So without further ado, Kirito hit logout and his vision went black. A few seconds later, he found himself blinking and staring up at his bedroom ceiling. Once again, he got up and put away his Nervegear.

As he was jogging downstairs, his eyes glanced over at the front door to see that his sister's shoes were gone, which meant she was still at kendo practice. She would most likely be home in an hour, so that meant he didn't have the risk of running into her. Not that it really mattered. When they were in the same room, they hardly spoke anyway.

Back when he was ten and he first made the decision to distance himself from her, it was hard to do. But it was even harder for Suguha who had no idea why he was pushing her away and being so cold all of a sudden. That made her try to apologize in the beginning because she thought she did something wrong, despite Kazuto assuring her that she didn't do anything wrong. Though his constant pushing her away to put distant between them probably didn't help her believe that. She always tried to get close to him in the first few months, but when all her attempts failed, she stopped bothering him.

It left an uncomfortable rift between them which is why Kazuto disliked being in a room with her. They usually ate dinner together, but it was always silent and tense, even more so when it was just the two of them and it was like that most nights. The small conversations that took place were just how things were and if anything was going on. Kazuto tended to eat dinner quickly then head to his room until Suguha was done. They took turns doing the dishes so when it was his night to do them, he would always come back down when he heard her bedroom close or if the sound from the tv reached his ears.

Shaking those thoughts away, Kazuto continued on his way to the kitchen to get dinner ready.

Soon, as he found himself preparing a meal he knew his mother loved, Kazuto lost himself in his work. He was so concentrated on his task, he never heard the door opened and never noticed the footsteps approaching him. It wasn't until he felt an arm snaking around his chest and a kiss being placed on his temple that Kazuto noticed anything. He jumped in surprise and looked over to see his mom grinning at him.

"W-welcome home." Kazuto said surprised.

"This smells good." Midori, Kazuto's mother, said as she backed away from her surprised son. She was a very beautiful woman with long black hair which she kept pulled back in a bun with a few short bangs framing her face. Her black eyes held a mischievous glint in them, much like Kazuto's when he teased people. A tender loving smile stretched across her face, as one usually did when she saw her children.

"Well, it's your favorite."

"And one of the better things you are good at making." Midori replied.

Kazuto huffed. "Well, it's not like I have a teacher here to teach me how to better my cooking."

Midori laughed and ruffled Kazuto's hair. "Sorry I'm not around to spend time teaching you."

"It's alright. If you were around more often to cook, I wouldn't even be concerned with learning how." Kazuto replied, giving his mother a small smile.

"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you?" Midori asked as she went over to the cabinet and took out some plates and glasses. She placed them on the table before going to get the silverware.

Kazuto casually glanced over to watch and paused with a frown. "There are only two plates and glasses. What about Suguha?"

Midori sighed and gave her a son a frown. "You spend more time at home then I do, so you should know. If only you talked to her more."

Kazuto looked back at the pots on the stove with a frown. His mother knew what he was doing, despite not being home much. He would have to call it mother's intuition. She didn't like what he was doing and tried to talk to him about, but Kazuto just couldn't listen to her. Midori decided to stop after a while and give him time to figure it out on his own.

"Her friend's birthday is today so after kendo practice they were going to her house for a sleepover party." Midori explained.

"Oh," Kazuto replied, feeling a bit down. That was a difference between him and Suguha. While he was reserved and antisocial, she was a social butterfly. While he didn't really have friends, she had a lot. While he played games all day, she was out at practice or with friends. They really had nothing in common which made it easy to distant himself from her. Though that was the case, it did make him lonely to not really have any friends. He had some acquaintances at school, but that was it for his social interactions. The only purpose of his cell phone was to keep in contact with his parents and sister, not that he really needed it as he rarely went out.

"So that means you get your mom all to yourself tonight." Midori teased.

Kazuto gave her a smile. He was by no means a mommy's boy, but he really did love his mother. Unlike Suguha, he had a lot in common with her since they both loved computers and that Midori was a gamer when she was younger. Being a former gamer, Kazuto was able to enthusiastically talk to her about his games. And then there was the secret of his real parents. Since his dad was hardly home and Suguha knew nothing of the truth, he was only able to broach the topic with her or his godfather. Though because his godfather was busy with his team working on the beta test and fixing bugs, there wasn't much time to meet with him.

It didn't really matter though since it wasn't often that he did broach that topic. A part of him didn't want to know. It felt like that if he asked and learned more about his real parents, it would make him even more distant from his family. When he first learned the truth, he felt like such an outsider intruding on this family. He didn't want to be an outsider. He loved his family so much and wanted to be loved like one of the family, which was why he tried to avoid asking about his birth parents. Knowing anymore about them would feel like pushing away the family that took him in after his birth parents were killed.

"Hey," Midori pinched Kazuto's cheek. "What's with that sudden frown?"

"It's nothing." Kazuto replied, smiling once more as he shook the thoughts about what his parents were like away. "Anyway, the food's done."

With the food served, Kazuto sat across from his mother at the table and dug into his food. Dinner was silent for a few minutes with only the sounds of their forks and knives scraping against their plates.

"Kazuto," Midori said, breaking the silence that fell over them. "It's been almost four years, and yet you've only asked about your parents three times since you told us you knew."

Kazuto jerked so violently in his seat in surprise that his hand hit his glass and knocked it over, spilling juice all over the table. Ignoring the mess, he lifted his eyes to his mother's. "W-w-why are you bringing them up all a sudden? Where did that even come from?!" He asked shocked, eyes wide.

"You were thinking about them while you were making dinner." Midori replied calmly. "Am I right?"

"That mother intuition again?" Kazuto mumbled, looking back down at his plate. His mother just always seemed to know what was wrong with her children. Despite the fact that she wasn't even home often.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

All that could be heard was the steady drip of juice falling from the table into a puddle on the ground as silent fell between the two for a moment.

Kazuto moved his eyes to look at the spilled juice to watch it drip off the table. "…It's alright." He replied quietly. "I don't ask because I really don't need to know anything about them. I mean, they died when I was young, didn't they? You and Dad are the ones who raised me."

"You really don't want to know about them?" Midori asked with a frown as she took in her adoptive son with a sad look in her eyes.

"Their names were Keiko and Hiroki Sato. Keiko was your younger sister by a few years. Hiroki was a gamer you became friends with online and you two chose to meet in real life. You didn't want to go alone so you dragged Keiko along and somehow, she hit it off with Hiroki and they steadily fell in love. At the same time, Keiko was finishing high school before going to major in journalism at college, while Hiroki went on to work in game designs at Argus with Aki-nii-san." Kazuto replied, and in the process almost hit himself when he realized he used that nickname for Kayaba-san. His threat of taking SAO beta from him really screwed with his mind. Sighing, he stood up to get a towel to clean up his spilled juice. "They fell in love and Hiroki proposed after only two years of dating. What more do I need to know?"

Midori watched as Kazuto soaked up the spilled juice with the towel. She reached forward and stalled his hand, making the teenager look up at her in surprise. "They're your real parents. Don't you ever feel like you want to know more about them?"

"What's the point?" Kazuto asked, staring into his mother's eyes. "If I learn about them, won't it just make me wish they were alive so I could know them and be with them?" His eyes shifted away to avoid her eyes. "That desperate longing for something I can't have is…." He trailed off and shook his head. "And…"

Midori, as perceptive as ever, sighed. "And it would also make you feel more distant from us, is that it? Kazuto, you have no reason to feel like that. I may not have given birth to you, but you are still my son. I always raised you as my son because that is I what I saw you as and I raised you to see me as your mother. Knowing about your real parents won't change the fact that you're my son and I'm your mother. It will give you a chance to learn more about our family. If you never learn about them, you'll regret it. They are the ones who brought you into this world."

"Things are fine the way they are." Kazuto replied, pulling his hand away from his mother's and going back to cleaning up the mess.

"Kazuto."

"I'll think about it, okay?" Kazuto said tiredly. He just wanted this conversation over and out of his mind. "I'll think about wanting to know more."

Midori stared at her son for a moment longer before nodding and sitting back as Kazuto moved to the floor to clean up the puddle. That was all she could ask of him. She didn't want to push him on this, but she just felt that he deserved to know more about the people who brought him into this world. If it was her, she would want to know about her parents. Then again, she didn't know what it was like to grow up not knowing that she was an orphan and then suddenly finding out the truth.

Once Kazuto finished cleaning up the juice and getting himself a new drink, he sat back down at the table and continued eating his dinner. This time, he kept his eyes locked on his plate. He wasn't mad at his mom for bringing it up. He actually figured she would one day when he didn't ask her any questions.

And now that she had, he had to figure out what he wanted. She brought up a good point. He didn't ask because he didn't want to feel more distant. Knowing anymore about his real parents would bring the feeling of being a stranger to this family back full force. It took months for him to decrease that feeling to a level where he still talked to them. He was scared of feeling like that completely again which is why he avoided the topic of Hiroki and Keiko Sato. But that was just running away from the truth, and isn't that what Aki-nii-san did when he avoided Kazuto for seven years? He finally took action to visit Kazuto a little over a month again. If he could man up and face the truth and Kazuto, shouldn't he try as well? Shouldn't he try to learn who he was born as and to who?

Sato. That name meant he was born Kazuto Sato. When he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, his name was changed to Kazuto Kirigaya. He became a Kirigaya and that was that, but then he asked his mom what Keiko and Hiroki did for a living. He was actually surprised to learn that his dad was a gamer like him and that he loved it enough to become a game designer. Growing up with Midori, who is a computer systems magazine editor, he fell in love with computers and found MMORPG. It made him wonder if his love for gaming also came from his dad as well as Midori's influence.

Then there was his mother. She was a journalist. She loved interviewing people and writing articles about it. Unlike Midori and Hiroki, she didn't really play games but through dating Hiroki, she started to look at games and learned a bit about them. Through that influence, Keiko actually did some journalist work with gaming magazines. It wasn't her main focus, but apparently in college she interned at MMO weekly for a semester. That was the extent to what he knew about her journalist career. He never learned what company she went to after college. It would be funny if she stuck with a gaming magazine company though.

It felt like with all these gamers around that he was destined to be a gamer himself.

When dinner was finally over, Kazuto put his plate in the sink and looked up at his mom to see her smiling at him. He felt sweat trickle down his brow as he stared steadily back. Nothing good could come from that look.

"I remember, Kazuto." Midori said with a teasing lilt in her voice.

Kazuto raised a brow. "Remembered what?"

"Aki-nii-san?" Midori asked.

At the nickname for his godfather, Kazuto's face flushed deeply. "He…I…Akihiko-san was threatening to take away my chance to be a beta tester if I didn't use that nickname again!"

Midori broke into laughter. Her son really was a game addict. She liked gaming, but she was never serious and became the strongest players like Hiroki always tried for. From the way Kazuto played, she was sure he aimed to be a top player as well. Such a simple threat about taking SAO away from him would make him do anything to make sure he didn't lose it.

"I remember Keiko saying once that they tried to explain to you that you should call him Uncle or something along those lines, but when they tried to teach you that, you started screaming and yelling that they were mean and how you wanted your 'Aki-nii-san.' Midori said with a teasing grin as her son's blush deepened.

Was he really that attached to Akihiko-san when he was a toddler?

Kazuto shook his head and went to move when he paused and knocked his knuckles against the counter as he stared at his mother. She just mentioned Keiko and the look in her eyes when she did…was that a look of longing mixed with guilt?

"What's wrong?" Midori asked confused as she looked back at him.

"Do…do you miss Keiko?" Kazuto asked with the slightest hesitation. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he felt his heartbeat start to pick up. He just asked that question. He just breached the topic of his parents. Why would he do that?! He didn't want to know the truth.

Midori looked at him in confusion, but a sad smile formed. "I will always miss her. She was too young to die."

"And Hiroki?" Kazuto continued without really wanting to. "You were close to him too, right?"

Midori nodded, and though she looked sad, she also looked at him with a loving expression. "I was and I always miss him, but I see them both all the time as well."

Black eyes stared back at her dark gray eyes in confusion. Didn't Akihiko-san mention something similar?

Standing up from the table, Midori walked towards the counter until she was standing in front of Kazuto. She leaned over and pressed her forehead against his and gently cupped the back of his neck with her gentle, warm hand. "You are so much like them. You look just like Keiko from the soft black hair to big, gentle black eyes that sparkle with mischief to that innocent, sweet smile which can turn into a smirk so similar to Hiroki's. You are their legacy. With you here, it feels like I see them all the time in you." She gave a wry smirk. "Or maybe their spirits are lingering to watch over their precious son as he grows into a fine young man."

Kazuto gave a small smile. "It sounds like I look mostly like Keiko. What about my dad? Do you see him in me at all, other than the smirk?"

"Hmm," Midori hummed thoughtfully. "Your kind heart, love of gaming, and strength."

"Strength?" Kazuto repeated confused. "What do you mean by that? I'm not strong."

"Strength doesn't always refer to power or being physically strong." Midori replied. She stared into her son's eyes for a moment longer, taking in how much they reminded her of Keiko's, before she stepped back. "Even if you don't want to know about them, there is something I want to show you."

"What?"

"Go sit down. I'll be back in a moment." Midori replied.

Kazuto sat on the couch in the living room and watched as his mom disappeared. He listened carefully to hear her footsteps heading upstairs before sighing and turning his eyes to the ceiling. Strength, huh? If strength did not mean physically strong, then what did it mean? What else could strength mean if not that? The only place he was strong was in SAO and that really didn't mean much. Kirito was strong in the virtual world, but Kazuto was weak in the real world. So what strength did his mother see in him?

"Here it is."

The teenager blinked and took notice of his mother as she sat down by him with a photo album.

Midori opened it and pushed half of it onto Kazuto's lap. Looking down, Kazuto found himself staring at a picture of a wedding. The bride and groom he didn't know, but the maid of honor he recognized as Midori. Seeing that and considering what they were just discussing, Kazuto's mind already processed what this was and looked back up at his mom. "This is…my parents' wedding?"

Midori nodded and pointed to the groom. Unlike Midori and Keiko, he had dark brown hair with bright green eyes. He was tall, but not overly so and only stood about a head taller than the bride. "Hiroki Sato." Her finger drifted to the bride who wore a beautiful wedding kimono that was white with a pink sash around her waist. Laying over it was an uchikake that trailed along the floor. Her black hair was pulled back into a bun with a few strands loose in the front to frame her gentle face which housed a pair of kind black eyes and a sweet smile. "The newly named Keiko Sato."

Surprising even himself, Kazuto found himself enraptured with the picture of his parents' wedding. This was them. These were the two people who gave life to him. They brought him into this world.

Just by looking at them, he felt like he could sense the love they had for each other just through this single picture. They were staring so deeply into each other's eyes that it looked like they saw one another as being the only people alive.

"They were only married for eight months before Keiko became pregnant with you." Midori said as she turned a few pages to stop on one of Keiko in a hospital bed with Hiroki sitting on the edge of the bed and holding Kazuto, who was just born. Keiko was looking down with fond love at her newborn son. "About two months before your birth, she put her college life on hold and didn't go back to school until you were almost a year old. She went back to college after that to continue getting her major in journalism."

Kazuto stared at the picture for a moment longer, taking in all he could of his parents before looking back up at his mother with a frown. "You know…" He said slowly, almost as if he didn't want to ask. He could always stop right now and forget this conversation. Or he could continue to dive into the truth he was scared to know. "You never told me how they died." And apparently his mouth was going to speak for him before his brain could decide what he wanted. Maybe this is what his heart wanted? Despite the fear pounding through him, maybe he really did want the truth.

"I have." Midori replied almost instantly.

Kazuto shook his head. "No, you just said they were killed in an accident. That doesn't explain what happened."

Midori stared at her son before looking away with a frown and a distant look in her eyes as she remembered that phone call she received from the police seven years ago. It wasn't a moment she liked to relive, and one she hoped to never have to. Of all things Kazuto could have asked about, he had to ask about this. "Keiko and Hiroki both worked a lot and they would leave you with me since I was on leave from work at the time. Honestly, I had no intention of going back to work since I wanted to raise Suguha. But your parents, they both worked so much, but they always made sure that one of them was able to pick you up by six and take you home. It was work and taking care of you for them. Not that they ever had a problem with it." She looked back at Kazuto with a gentle smile. "They loved you more than anything. But then I thought they both deserved some time for just themselves so when you were six, I convinced them both to take time for a date. Having kids doesn't give parents much time to themselves so I wanted them to have that rare chance."

"They dropped you off here and left for their date." Midori continued, closing her eyes and sighing softly. "Later that night, they picked you up and were going home when they were killed. A drunk driver was swerving all over the road and ran a red light. Hiroki had no time to react and a collision occurred." Midori paused for a moment and looked conflicted about something, like there was something she wanted to add. Her eyes glanced at Kazuto then away before she finally said, "The only survivor of the collision was you."

Kazuto stared at Midori, eyes wide and a frown resting on his face. His parents were killed by a drunk driver? Why was he even on the road if he had been drinking?! "I see." He said softly, turning his head to stare at the blank tv. "I was in the car?" He lifted a hand to his eyes and rested it there. "I don't…I was six, so shouldn't I still remember something like this? Why can't I recall this? On that note, why can't I remember my parents' faces at all? I should have memories of them….shouldn't I?"

"The doctors said it is most likely dissociative amnesia. The car accident was so traumatizing for you that you purposely blocked out those memories of it and all memories of your parents. You repressed all your memories of everything that involved them, which includes Suguha, Akihiko, Minetaka, and me, all to escape the traumatizing truth. With your memories repressed and Suguha being too young to understand and having spent so much time with you, neither of you knew you weren't real siblings. She always believed you two to be siblings because you were here so much, practically every day." Midori explained softly as she brushed a bit of Kirito's bangs aside gently. "With all the pictures we have of you two together, it just solidified that fact to her."

Midori sighed and wrapped her arms around her son and pulled him into her chest. "Since I am your godmother and Keiko was my sister, I took you in. Akihiko agreed it was for the best since he was so busy with his career. I stayed out of work a while longer to make sure you were doing well, but with two kids to raise, I decided to get back on the career track."

"I see." Kazuto said again as his hands curled around the edge of the seat cushion tightly. "Were you ever going to tell me any of this?"

Midori opened her black eyes and leveled them on Kazuto, who was still looking at the tv, despite it being off. "We were going to tell you the truth about not being our real son. We just never expected you to find out at ten." She sighed. "As for the truth of their death, I never wanted to tell you, but I also always knew you would ask about how they died one day. If you never asked, I was never going to tell. For all this, I am sorry, Kazuto."

Kazuto looked over at her in surprise. She was apologizing? For what? For not wanting to tell him the truth?

"It's my fault." Midori said softly as Kazuto stared at her, captivated by her words. "If I didn't convince Keiko and Hiroki to take a night to themselves and go out on a date that night while they left you with me, they wouldn't have been killed. You could have all been at home, safe and sound."

She felt it was her fault? Kazuto blinked and took in his mother with a frown. "It wasn't your fault. You had no idea something like that would happen." He protested. "It could never be your fault. It was that drunk driver's fault. You can't blame yourself for wanting your sister and her husband to take a day for themselves." He turned to face her fully, wearing a sad, but calming smile. "Don't blame yourself for something you couldn't predict happening. No one is at fault for the actions of others. I don't blame you, Mom."

Midori looked back with a sad smile, tears filling her eyes but she did her best to keep them from falling. She leaned forward and kissed her son's forehead. "Thank you." She whispered. "I love you, Kazuto." _'You have no idea how much those words mean to me. Thank you.'_

Kazuto gave a small smile back before he got up and made his way back upstairs to his room.

As soon as he got to his room, he shut the door behind him and fell against it, head bowed. His parents, huh? He didn't want to go into them, but somehow he did. And now he knew. A drunk driver was the reason he lost his birth parents. It almost killed him. It did kill his parents. His teeth gritted in frustration and tears pricked at his eyes. They were lost to him because of the recklessness of _one person._

Why did he have to ask about them? Now he knew…he knew how he lost them. He knew he had missing memories. He had memories of his parents, but he couldn't remember any of them! All he knew of his real parents were repressed because he was a coward. He was too scared to face the truth and now he has lost the memories of the people who brought him into this world and were the first to love him.

He wanted to know them. He wanedt to see them, speak to them. His father was a game designer. Kazuto wanted to talk about games all day with him. His mother gave birth to him, put her life on hold just for him. He wanted to feel the warmth and love of her arms around him. Were they like his adoptive mother's arm? Did they feel warm and protective?

To know this much about his real parents, he never desired this. Knowing this much just made him want to have them back in his life. It was an impossibility which was why he never desired to know this much. Now his heart was screaming out in pain for his real parents.

This reality….he couldn't face it anymore. He needed an escape.

Black eyes cracked open to see his Nervegear, the only thing that was his escape from the pain of reality.

 **A/N: ….Sorry, the main focus of this was supposed to be SAO. But I wanted to bring in some interaction between Kazuto and his aunt/mom. It went a bit too far though. I know Kazuto's mom was actually older than Midori, but I changed it to work with Hiroki and Akihiko being friends before he died. Also, I had Kazuto's parents die when he was a bit older for a reason. Mostly to do with Akihiko.**

 **But the next chapter is all about SAO. I said the next chapter would be the last one about the beta test, but I have most of written and it isn't done yet, but it already has over 12,000 words. I might have to split it up into two chapters. In which case, there are two more chapters of the beta test to go.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed!**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Chapter 3**

"What do you know?"

"Depends on what you are asking about." Argo replied as she leaned back in her chair and carefully took in the tavern they were sitting in to make sure no one was listening in on them. While it was alright in her mind for her to spy on people, she did not like it when others did it to her. Anyone who wanted information had to pay her for it.

"I know Dragon's Kings is planning something, but I haven't been able to get any information about it. Redwing has been keeping a very tight lid on it."

Argo refocused her gaze onto Ridwig. "It would be pathetic if he wasn't trying to keep information about his plans on the down low." She leaned forward and put her chin on her fist as she stared into Ridwig's eyes. "I don't mind selling you any information you need, but is it really worth it to buy info on another guild just because of a rivalry?"

"Of course." Ridwig said immediately, eyes alight with the flame of competition. "I will not lose to someone like him!"

The information dealer raised a brow, but smirked. Ridwig and Redwing never changed. No one was able to understand the whole rivalry thing they had going on, but it was there since day one of the beta. It started off just between them, but when the guild quest became available, they started to involve their friends who joined their guilds. She wouldn't be surprised if a guild war broke out one of these days. Because of the leaders' rivalry, the members of Dragon's Kings and the Holy Knights Allegiance were fiercely opposing of the other and would follow their leaders' orders without complaint if it meant one upping the other guild.

"So, anything you can tell me about his plan would be great." Ridwig said, adopting a serious, calm manner once more.

"Even at the hefty price it will cost you?" Argo asked slyly.

Ridwig's mouth set into a firm line, but he nodded. "Name the price."

"Hmm," Argo said. "Well, I can't." She weakly tossed her hands up and shrugged. "I do not know what Dragon's Kings is planning."

"Seriously?" Ridwig almost shouted, but he managed to keep his voice down just in time. He leaned back into his seat with a frustrated sigh. So even the Rat couldn't figure out what Dragon's Kings was planning. That was surprising to say the least. She was one of the best information dealers around which is why he came to her. If she didn't know, then how was he to find out just what Redwing had planned? "And you're supposed to be the best of the best for info brokers?"

"If you really want to know," Argo said, an annoyed frown forming on her lips at Ridwig's insult. "I do have some info that might interest you." Her words alone brought Ridwig's full interested stare back to her. "It's possible a player outside Dragon's Kings has info on their plan, but he won't even sell the info to me. For a price, the name is all yours."

"10,000 Col." Ridwig said, already opening his menu and going to the trade menu.

"15,000 Col."

Ridwig's hand stalled at her voice and he lifted his angry gaze to hers. "What? You upped the price? It was always 10,000 Col."

"It's that or there is no trade." Argo replied firmly with a knowing smirk on her lips. When people were desperate for information, they were eager to spend their col for it. This is why she enjoyed the rivalries between the guilds. It brought her so much good business.

Ridwig stared at her for a moment longer before sighing and changing the amount of the trade to 15,000 Col. "There, rip-off info broker." He mumbled quietly. "Now what can you tell me?"

Argo accepted the money before saying, "Two days ago at the PvP after party, I saw Kirito speaking to Henrik of Dragon's Kings. They seemed to be having an interesting talk and when I asked Kirito later, he refused to tell me what it was about."

"Kirito?" Ridwig repeated with a smirk. "I should have known. He's probably the only person outside his guild that Redwing will trust, skill wise at least. For information though, Kirito isn't very trustworthy." He leveled Argo with a stare. "Though you're even less trustworthy than him. Neither of you have any loyalty to anyone."

Argo smirked. "Do you want the rest of the info or not?"

"What else is there?" Ridwig asked.

"If you want to speak with Kirito, he is in the sixth floor dungeon." Argo replied before she rose to her feet. "That is all the info you are getting for 15,000 Col."

"It's more than enough." Ridwig assured her quickly as his mind was already spinning with plans and a trip to the dungeon.

Argo laughed. "You say that now, but good luck with getting anything from Kirito about this."

 ***Kirito***

CLANG!

Kirito felt his foot slide back a bit from the pressure that the «Salamander Slave» was exerting on his sword with its two handed sword. Gritting his teeth, Kirito pushed back by putting more strength into his attack. He managed a small step forward before both swords were flying up from the pressure of attacks.

With a grunt, Kirito yanked his arm down into position on his shoulder for a «slant», keeping his eyes entirely locked on the «Salamander Slave» in front of him. It was a strange monster in this dungeon. It was a black salamander with yellow stripes that stood on two legs and had a tail that dragged along the floor behind it. It wore some basic armor over its chest and wielded a two-handed sword.

Having been in the dungeon for close to four hours already, Kirito already learned much about the «Salamander Slave», and one of those things included that blasted tail. His sharp eyes caught the motion of the tail twitching. Not wasting a moment, Kirito quickly stepped forward with his sword coming down for a diagonal slash from top-right to bottom-left using the «slant» skill. An orange gash ripped across the monster's chest, but it wasn't enough to destroy it. Immediately after the skill finished, Kirito jumped back and just missed being hit by the «Salamander Slave's» tail.

That was a surprising attack with the first «Salamander Slave» he fought. He never expected them to be able to swing their tails around and attack with them. But after four hours of fighting these monsters, he had gotten the hang of it and knew when to dodge the tail.

Kirito adjusted his sword to the position for «vertical arc» before he ran forward. As his sword started to glow for the attack, he dodged a coming attack and unleased his own attack on the «Salamander Slave». It was the final attack needed to destroy the monster as it burst into polygons.

A window popped up in front of him to display the experience, col, and items he won. One such item was «salamander meat» which he seemed to be getting a lot of. He wondered how it tasted, but he didn't put a lot of points into his cooking skill so he wasn't willing to try to make anything with it. Maybe he could just cook it over a fire later.

Finished with that, he closed his window before turning around to make his way out of the dungeon. He had spent enough time grinding his level, besides there was a task that he needed to do since it seemed he couldn't do it alone.

 ***Beater***

After another hour of fighting his way out of the dungeon, Kirito stepped out of the dark dungeon and into the bright sun. As soon as he did, he had to shield his eyes for a moment while they got used to the light. It only took a few seconds before he was able to see clearly again and this led him to being surprised at seeing Ridwig learning against one of the trees of the forest that surrounded the dungeon.

"Clearly, you must be bored if you are just going to stand there." Kirito commented as he walked towards him. "There is a giant dungeon in front of you and you're not even going to go in?"

"If I did that, I would have missed you if I chose the wrong path." Ridwig replied easily.

"Missed me?" Kirito commented as he continued past Ridwig. "I didn't realize my charming personality was so endearing to you that you would hunt me down."

Ridwig snorted and knocked Kirito on the head with his knuckles. "It's definitely not for your personality that I would spend my time looking for a pesky brat like you."

"I take offense to that. I am by no means a brat." Kirito retorted.

The other player raised a brow. "Oh? But you are pesky?"

"Course, I make it a point to irritate people." Kirito replied easily with a lazy smirk that he shot over his shoulder at Ridwig. "Course, you irritate me in return. Is it that time of the week where you push my buttons too far that I stab you and go orange for a few days? I didn't realize that time was upon us already!"

Ridwig laughed as he fell into step with Kirito. "No. Sorry, Kirito, not this week. I actually need your help with something."

"Oh? Another job from the Holy Knights Allegiance?" Kirito asked as he jumped over a fallen log. "It's been a while since you've hired me."

Ridwig calmly stepped over the log as he looked at Kirito more closely. He was one of the best players in the beta, but Ridwig found the way that he acted to be sometimes childish. It really did make him wonder at times just how old Kirito was. Was he a childish adult? Or was he really just a teenager?

"Sorry, no job, but it could always lead to one. It depends on what you tell me." Ridwig said casually as he looked at Kirito out of the corner of his eyes. He noticed the kid didn't react at all to what he said. "Argo happened to mention to me that you know what Dragon's Kings is planning."

Unknown to Ridwig, Kirito was cursing Argo to hell inside his head at that very moment. On the outside though, Kirito didn't even flinch at the news that Ridwig wanted information about his rival guild. He really should have seen this coming. If Argo got paid, she would give any information away.

"I really want no part in your guild rivalry right now." Kirito replied stiffly, eyes narrowed as they scanned the forest.

"Then just give me the information you have." Ridwig said with a grin. "As soon as you do, I will be out of your hair."

Kirito shook his head. "Spreading that information will involve me." He came to a sudden stop and raised his hand to the handle of the sword on his back.

Ridwig, having gotten to know Kirito rather well in the few weeks he had known him, knew that the action wasn't directed towards wanting to kill him. He hadn't done enough to warrant getting stabbed by Kirito yet. So that meant…Ridwig jumped and turned around to cover Kirito's back, while he covered his. His hand went down to his side where his Shadow Edge dagger was. It was a dagger he received from the fourth floor boss last attack bonus. The dagger had a black blade and a handle that was crisscrossed in black and white wrapping. He slid it out of its sheath a bit as he looked around the forest.

"Who is it? Monsters or players?" Ridwig whispered.

"Players." Kirito whispered back, eyes narrowed as he looked around. His searching skill was at a level that was apparently higher than their hiding skill. Already he had found six players around them. It was one party, unless there was a second one around.

Ridwig growled to himself. Was it a party of player killers? But what were they doing out here? They couldn't have known that Kirito was out here or that Ridwig was coming to find him. Were they just lying in wait for a random victim or were they tracking them?

"Come out! We know you're there!" Ridwig called out.

It was silent for a moment. No movement from the players or even the forest, which seemed to have fallen still in the tense moment. Then, three players jumped down from the trees. Two landed in front of Ridwig while the other landed in front of Kirito. The other three surrounded the two on their sides.

Staring at the player in front of him, Kirito raised a brow as he saw it was Siren, the right hand man of Redwing in Dragon's Kings. Like the other members of the guild, he was wearing black and red armor. His consisted of black pants and boots with metal plates on the front of them. He wore a sleeveless red shirt and white gloves that stopped just above his elbows. His guild mark, the roaring dragon, was actually tattooed on his left arm between the end of his glove and his shoulder. A silver armor plate covered his chest and a single silver gauntlet was on his left forearm as Kirito learned he used it to defend against weapons as it was strong enough to block weapons. An one handed hung from a brown belt. Siren had crimson red eyes that felt like they were examining one's soul and long dark green hair that he kept pulled back into a ponytail.

Kirito's eyes moved to the side to see Henrik and other players from Dragon's Kings there too. What was a party from Dragon's Kings doing ambushing them like this?

Ridwig tsked. As soon as he got out of this, he knew his own right hand man, Mazart, was going to give him grief for being reckless and leaving to find Kirito alone. "What do you want, Siren? Going to kill us?" He sneered, but kept his eyes on the players in front of him.

"I just came to pick Kirito up." Siren said casually, making Kirito narrow his eyes. "It's troublesome when you spend so much time in a dungeon, Kirito. We can't send you any messages."

"That is not my problem. I am not at anyone's beck and call." Kirito replied, hand tightening on his sword. This is why he didn't want to get in the middle of the guilds' rivalries. It was always such a pain to deal with. "How did you even know I was here?"

Siren smirked as he twisted his wrist and pointed at Ridwig. "He is not the only one that Argo sells information to. Interesting enough, she also told me Ridwig was coming here to talk to you as well, which is why I brought a party with me."

"I think they want to kill you." Kirito mumbled.

"Yeah," Ridwig said with a bit of sweat trailing down his face, but also determination shining in his eyes. "Damn, Mazart is really going to kill me later when I get out of here."

Kirito smirked a bit in amusement as his eyes shifted to Henrik then back to Siren. Redwing's right hand and left hand man. It basically meant that Siren was second in command and Henrik was third in command. They were both powerful players in their own right. This was going to be a pain to deal with.

"Come now, Kirito. Don't look like that. We don't want to kill you, just talk." Henrik said. "Ridwig on the other hand, we want to kill."

"Note to self, guild leader, don't come alone next time." Kirito threw over his shoulder.

"Note received." Ridwig replied as he shifted his eyes around to each of the players. Seeing as they wanted to kill him, it wasn't shocking to find that four of the players were closer to him to keep him surrounded while Henrik and Siren were nearer to Kirito. "What's the plan?"

Kirito looked out of the corner of his eyes at him in annoyance. "I want no part in any of this. How did I ever get involved with the Holy Knight's Allegiance and the Dragon's Kings in the first place? I am just a simple solo mercenary wandering the lands of Aincrad!"

"So I take it you won't come see Redwing peacefully?" Siren asked with a smirk as he drew his sword. "I love it when the target struggles."

Kirito's brow twitched. "Just how many times have you forcibly dragged someone to meet your leader if you can say that?" He sighed and pulled his sword out. This was not what he wanted to deal with right now. If this continued, he was either going to get dragged back to town, get killed, or he would be forcibly logged out by his mother when he didn't show up for dinner. At this point, he didn't know what the best choice was. He didn't like any of the options. So, since he didn't like them, he was going to have to raise the pot. He needed a plan, some type of way to get out of this.

A frown formed onto his face as he slipped into a fight stance. What could he do? What type of action should he take for this situation?

"You know the plan." Siren said and that was all the warning Ridwig and Kirito got before they were suddenly being attacked.

Kirito cursed silently as Henrik moved in from the side with his two handed sword glowing blue with his sword skill. Coming from the side, Kirito was forced to spin towards him and swing his sword up as he parried the attack. With a successful block, Kirito wanted to take the chance to go on the offensive, but wasn't giving the chance as Siren was charging at him. He jumped away to avoid him and landed with a tree to his back. His eyes narrowed as he was able to take in the full situation from this point. Four of the members of Siren's party were attacking Ridwig while the second and third in command of Dragon's Kings were after him. He should have seen this coming a mile away.

His eyes trailed over to Ridwig again. He knew the leader of Holy Knight's Allegiance was strong, but he didn't think he could handle four players at once. It was a dangerous game he was playing over there.

A flash of silver and an uncomfortable feeling pulling through his cheek had Kirito's eyes moving in front of him. Siren stood there, sword impaled in the tree right next to Kirito's head. He saw his HP drop a few points from where the sword sliced his cheek.

"You should pay attention to the enemies in front of you, Kirito." Siren told him with a smirk. "Don't tell me you are worried about Ridwig? As a solo player, you have no such loyalties to anyone. Unless you happened to join his guild at some point?"

Kirito snarled. It was a well-known fact in the game that Kirito was an avid solo player who only formed parties when he absolutely had to. No one could understand why he hated partying so much. Well, it wasn't that he hated it. He just preferred solitude. Though he would admit it was entertaining to be around the other players from time to time. Unless they dragged him into their guild rivalries. Like right now for instance!

"Exactly, I have no loyalties which is why I will have no problem killing you two." Kirito retorted, but when he went to move, he found his legs refusing to cooperate. His eyes widened when he found nothing was obeying his commands. A yellow symbol with a black lightning bolt through it caught his attention near his health bar. Paralysis? When…

His eyes caught sight of the sword in the tree next to him to finally see it dripping a green liquid. The only thing keeping him standing at this point was the tree he was leaning against so he didn't notice the effect of the poison right away.

"You doused your sword in poison?" Kirito said shocked. They really had planned this out. Him not cooperating, Ridwig being here, separating the two players. Siren never planned for a long fight.

It was a key fact that Kirito had forgotten. Siren was an enthusiastic poison user. The only thing was that Kirito knew he never doused his main weapon in poison. He only ever covered throwing knives and picks in the poison of his choice. To think he would actually poison his sword to get him…

"You tricky bastard." Kirito mumbled as the sword in his hand fell. With the effects of paralysis, he had no gripping power left and so there was no way to keep hold of his sword.

"Kirito!" Ridwig shouted, having heard his sword drop. "Damn it! Seriously, Kirito, how could you lose so fast? You were just crowned the best PvP in the game the other day!" He dodged an attack before slamming his foot into the stomach of the player near him. He twisted around another sword and risked a glance towards Kirito and Siren, cursing silently. Damn poison user.

Siren yanked his sword from the tree. The sudden vibration caused Kirito to lose his balance and fall to the ground where he stayed lying. "One down." Siren said.

"Damn it." Ridwig growled before he left his four opponents behind and charged at Siren. He wasn't sure how long the paralysis would last on Kirito, but he had to hold these six off until it did.

An annoyed Kirito watched from his uncomfortable position on the ground to see Ridwig charging at Siren. He could not believe he had been so careless to get poisoned and so fast. He never did like Siren's way of fighting. Stupid crazy poison fanatic that he was. While he was at it, stupid bloody guilds. He was never going to deal with them again after this. He would make both of these guilds despise him. Yes, that would be his plan. His plan had been formed.

But for it to succeed…He would have to let Siren drag him back to Dragon's King HQ. Well, he was already paralyzed so that shouldn't be too hard to do.

Oh, these two guilds would hate him before the end of the week and they would never bother him again. There was no way he was dealing with this crap ever again. And maybe when this was all over, he would kill Ridwig and Redwing just for the heck of it.

A dark chuckle almost escaped him at his dark thoughts, but he forced it down. For now, he must play the helpless victim. He could use this time to better form his plan so all his cards would be played right. They weren't going to know what hit them.

Before Ridwig could hit Siren, Henrik suddenly dropped down in front of him and parried his attack.

"Kill him." Siren ordered before he turned to Kirito and pulled him up. He tossed the paralyzed teenager over his shoulder and casually strolled away from the five vs one fight happening behind him.

' _This feels like an abduction.'_ Kirito thought with a scowl as his body bounced with each step Siren took. Each step caused Siren's shoulder to hit him in the stomach which left an uncomfortable jerking motion in it. _'That's it. I'm killing Siren at the end of this fiasco too. Screw going red. I'll just live in dungeons and forests for a few days.'_

"You guys are willing to become orange and even red just for this?" Kirito asked with a frown, glaring at the ground that was speeding past his sight. In just a few minutes the paralysis would wear off. Just a few minutes.

"Of course. The rivalry is strong." Siren said with so much dedication to the cause that Kirito wanted to smack his face or Siren. Yes, most likely Siren. "And don't try to preach to me about becoming orange or red. I know you have player killed outside of duels too."

That was true. It was a weekly goal to kill Ridwig at least once. Of course, he didn't always succeed in that. He only succeeded in actually killing him twice. As he said earlier, Ridwig was strong. He was no pushover, but even he would falter against five enemies. Not to say it wouldn't take some of them with him, because Kirito was sure he would.

Kirito shook thoughts of Ridwig away and refocused on the task at hand. Siren was an orange, along with the rest of his party by this point. As they were orange, there was no way they could enter a town. The NPC guards would attack them if they attempted that. So that meant that Siren was meeting Redwing somewhere else. Well, that at least saved him the embarrassment of getting seen carried like this.

Honestly, getting kidnapped in a game. This was a new low for him and he was sure Akihiko would laugh at him about this if he found out. Dragon's Kings was now even lower on his list of guilds he hated. And to think, after what happened in the PvP tournament, he didn't think they could get any lower.

And for that, he was really going to enjoy the next couple of days. His plan was formed; now he just needed to implement it and he would start with Redwing. The end result of this plan was to get the guilds to leave him alone, but another end result might also be his death at the hands of both guilds. But if it led to them stopping with dragging him into their damn wars, he was fine with a single death. Not that he really wanted to die though.

The shadows that covered him and Siren soon disappeared and Kirito felt the sun bearing down on his back. That meant they were out of the forest. He was starting to wander where Redwing was waiting for them when he suddenly felt his body before shifted before he was tossed.

Kirito barely saw the sky for a second before he could no longer see it because it was covered by a roof.

SLAM!

Kirito shifted his eyes towards the sound and found a door that was most likely the sound. His eyes moved towards Siren, who was sitting on the other side of the….carriage?

A sudden shift of movement jerked Kirito in his seat. Yep, this was definitely a carriage. He wouldn't call carriages rare in SAO, but they weren't exactly something that the players normally used since they wanted to run through the fields and to the next town so they could fight the enemies they came across.

Besides, carriages were expensive. It was mostly NPCs who used them. Kirito could remember a quest where he had to escort some merchants and their precious cargo to another town. It was quite troublesome because they got attacked by bandits and monster during the trip, but the reward was very nice so it was a quest worth doing.

But if Siren was using a carriage, then that meant the Dragon's Kings were either crazy or just earned enough money to actually be able to afford a carriage and still have enough left over to buy equipment for their boss raid they were planning.

"Really, a carriage?" Kirito grumbled.

"Seeing as how my best men can't enter a town for a while, I thought this would be a nice way to travel for a while."

Kirito's brow twitched as he shifted his eyes to the player sitting next to Siren. Redwing. "I hate you."

A quick, short laugh escaped Redwing. He rested his elbow on the window next to him and leaned his chin on his knuckle. "I imagine you might, Kirito. I told Siren to be gentle and not kill you so we could discuss plans."

"You know, you could have just waited til I got back to town." Kirito snapped. "It was where I was heading."

Redwing used his free hand to wave that idea off. "Ah, but where is the fun in that type of plan?"

For a moment, Kirito just stared blankly at Dragon's Kings boss before muttering, "And people call me the crazy one."

Seemingly not hearing him, Redwing continued. "Besides, we bought the info from Argo that Ridwig was coming to find you. We couldn't have you giving him any information and we also got to ensnare him in our trap and take him out."

Once again, Kirito could still not figure out if Ridwig and Redwing were friends or not. Did they hate each other or not? Or was this all still a part of the story they were building amongst themselves?! And if so, why did they have to drag him into it? He did nothing to deserve this kind of treatment!

Noticing the paralysis symbol disappear from besides his status bar, Kirito started to open and close his hands a few times to check their movement before he sat up. He quickly opened his menu and navigated through the motion to return his sword to him. His sword that Siren just so happened to have left in the middle of that forest. It was lucky for him that Kirito knew he could retrieve it before a certain amount of time past. Once he found it, he materialized it in front of him and returned the blade to the sheath on his back.

With that done, Kirito leaned back into the seat he was thrown onto. Despite the situation, he found it incredibly comfy. He looked over his shoulder to see a window in the wall above his seat. A curtain would normally cover it, but it was pushed to the side so Kirito was able to see out of it to see who was driving the carriage. The player was Tal, a spear wielder and a midlevel player of Dragon's Kings. Though not very strong, Kirito knew he was extremely loyal to Redwing.

Sighing, Kirito looked back at Siren and Redwing with a frown. "Please tell me the point of this. And preferably now."

"Straight to the point, aren't you?" Redwing asked amused. "Alright, well, as you know, my guild is planning to raid this floor's boss by ourselves. You did good in not informing Argo, but Ridwig knows something is up and you know something. We simply wish to keep this information very quiet until we defeat the boss. And as Henrik already told you, we are planning to hire you to help us with the dungeon." As he spoke, Redwing started to manipulate his menu.

Kirito watched as he deftly moved his fingers through his menu. Without looking away from his window, Redwing pushed a button on the wall of the carriage. As he watched, Kirito saw the wall glow briefly before a board fell from it and landed between him and the two players from Dragon's Kings. He blinked when he noticed it was a table.

A moment later three silver goblets and a bottle appeared on the table. Siren immediately grabbed the bottle and poured some of it into each of the goblets before he pushed one over to Kirito. A sweet herbal scent of lemon mixed with mint wafted up to his nose.

Kirito picked the goblet up and swished the liquid around in the goblet. "There better not be poison in here." He sent a nasty, daring look towards Siren. "If there is, I just might have to kill you, Siren."

Siren laughed and lifted his own goblet up in cheers. "No worries, Kirito." He took a long sip of his own drink.

Figuring it was fine after seeing that, Kirito took a tentative sip of his own drink.

"It's a special tea that will increase your battle healing by +2." Redwing explained as he held his own goblet, but he didn't take a sip of it.

Kirito took another sip of his tea before he put the goblet down on the table and leveled his stare at Redwing. "Is there another reason you decided to…. _abduct_ me?"

Siren snickered before he slipped back into his serious composure when Kirito shot him an annoyed glare. "Sorry, sorry, Kirito." He said with a careless wave of his hand.

"That dungeon you were in, we received some good information that it is the boss dungeon of this floor." Redwing said, completely ignoring Siren for the time being.

"Is that so?" Kirito replied, though he already knew this information. Another party happened to enter the dungeon and found some information about it being the boss dungeon before they were slaughtered by the monsters. Any information was good so they happened to have sold it to Argo. She was the reason Kirito was in the dungeon since he bought the information about it from her. Which was also the reason why he was found by Ridwig and Dragon's Kings. Damn that Argo. It was no wonder she was called Rat.

"So what? You want me to give you information about the dungeon?" Kirito continued.

"That would be nice. How to defeat the monsters, the map data you have so far, and anything else you have learned." Redwing replied.

Kirito raised a brow as he swirled his tea around in his goblet again. "Is that so? Let me be frank with you, Redwing." He leaned an arm on the table and a smirk crept onto his face. "You're a bit late. The Holy Knight's Allegiance hired me as their mercenary."

SLAM!

"WHAT?!" Redwing shouted as he leaned on the table, having thrown his goblet to the side which slammed into Siren's head. He was in Kirito's face, though the solo mercenary was currently trying not to laugh as he stared at the tea covered Siren who lost some HP points when he got hit by the goblet.

"Damn it, boss. Watch where you are throwing things." Siren grumbled as he rubbed his head.

Not able to help it, Kirito started to snicker at Siren's predicament and had to throw a hand over his mouth to silence the snickers. No, this was not the time to start laughing. This was a serious moment.

Completely ignoring his right hand man, Redwing narrowed his eyes at Kirito. "When? When did they hire you?"

"I have no obligation to answer you beyond that. Mercenary/client confidentiality policy." Kirito replied casually before he picked up his goblet and took another sip from it. "Very delicious tea, Redwing. I must thank you for it."

"Cut the bullshit, Kirito!" Redwing snapped. "Mercenary/client confidentiality policy?! That doesn't exist."

"Ah, I created it. Isn't it fine when I use it while working for you? But when it's the other way of around, it annoys you?" Kirito asked, raising a challenging brow at Redwing.

"Were you really working for Ridwig? He had to buy information from Argo to know where you were." Siren said suspiciously as he grabbed his leader's shoulder and pulled him back in his seat.

Kirito shrugged. "He hired me to scout this floor's dungeon when it was found, but I never told him when I was going. He came to find me because he found out I knew something about your plans. Normally, he wouldn't hunt me down like that. So, really, the fact that he was there was your fault."

"You were scouting the dungeon for him?" Redwing demanded. "Why? Is he aiming for the boss as well?"

The mercenary raised a brow as he snorted. "Who isn't aiming for the boss, Redwing? You know Holy Knight's Allegiance wants the glory, items, experience, and col from defeating the boss alone just as much as your guild does."

"So, that's it." Redwing growled as he slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. "He will go that far to defeat me, huh?"

"Seems so." Kirito replied. "Though, he doesn't know that defeating the boss is your goal as well, Redwing."

"When?" Redwing asked.

"When what?"

"When is his guild planning to attack?" Redwing demanded.

Kirito shrugged. "I haven't been privileged with that information yet. I was going to speak to him today after I gave him the information I got from scouting the dungeon, but then you guys dragged me away."

Redwing rubbed his chin. "Is that so?" He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he nodded, seemingly to himself. "Alright, this is how it is. I know you have no true loyalties to anyone, Kirito, so whatever Ridwig is paying you, I'll double it and after the boss raid, I'll let you take whatever two items we receive from the boss."

"Hmm?" Kirito raised a brow as he lifted his goblet and hid his smirk behind it. "That sounds tempting, but Ridwig offered me three items. The money is nice, but the dungeon items are so much more appealing."

"Four items." Redwing countered. "And double pay for you."

"You sure? He is paying me 50,000 col." Kirito replied.

Siren jerked in his seat. 50,000 col? That meant they would have to pay Kirito 100,000 col at the end of this! Were his services really that needed for Redwing to actually pay that?

"And I want a third of it paid in advance." Kirito continued. "I do need to prepare for the raid after all. Plus, it can be good insurance for you. Ridwig refused to pay me a bit in advance so I don't really trust him to pay me later on. I'm not sure if he even has the col to pay me. It's not like he bet his whole guild's fund on the PvP tournament."

"I think you have been spending too much time with Argo." Redwing told him with a smirk. "So I pay you a third in advance, it ensures your loyalty to me and not Ridwig?"

Kirito leaned on the table, giving his acquaintance a vicious grin. "I'll do you one better. Ridwig trusts me and thinks I am working for him so why don't I be a double agent for you?"

"Would that work? He saw you get dragged off by us." Siren pointed out.

"Don't sweat the details." Kirito said without an ounce of worry. "I know how to play this to my favor." He looked back towards Redwing. "What do you say? I am sure I can get the details from Ridwig about his plans and tell you so we can prepare faster."

Redwing was silent for a moment as he thought it over. It was a very tempting offer. He would get a spy in the Holy Knight's Allegiance and get the best mercenary out there to work with his guild for their coming raid. Not to mention, it would be extremely helpful in showing up Ridwig. The only downside was whether Kirito was trustworthy or not.

Well, he needed the information on Ridwig so for now he would have to put all his faith in Kirito and hope it didn't come back to stab him in the back. It shouldn't though. Once Kirito was hired, he would loyally work for his client. He was sure he would still be loyal to Redwing, but whichever guild moved first on the boss would be the one to get Kirito's help so it should be fine.

"Alright, Kirito." Redwing said as he opened his menu and then a trade window. He inputted 33,000 col into it and sent it Kirito. "Here is the first third. I am hoping our working together goes as well as it has in the past."

Kirito accepted the payment. "I'm sure it will, Redwing." He replied just as the carriage jerked to a stop.

"We're here!" Tal called back.

"Huh?" Kirito mumbled and he looked out the door window to see them outside the village Ludis, which was the main village on this floor and also what Kirito's original stop was before Siren got in the way. "Well, that's convenient."

"Then I was right in my guess in you coming here next." Redwing said. "Since Siren can't enter the town, we'll be going separate ways here, Kirito. Send me a message when you find anything out."

"Understood." Kirito drowned the rest of his tea before jumping out of the carriage. He stopped before closing the door and said, "Pleasure doing business, Redwing."

Kirito slammed the carriage door shut and entered the village, nodding to the NPC guards as he walked past them. The moment he was in town, he took off running towards the teleport gate. If he was right in his thinking, the Holy Knight's Allegiance HQ was on the fourth floor. He tended to avoid guild HQs so he wasn't exactly sure of where it was so he hoped he at least got the floor number right.

 ***Beater***

"So, you really got killed." Kirito said, standing casually in the doorway of the Holy Knight's Allegiance HQ. An amused smile graced his lips when he took in Mazart scolded his boss for going alone while the other guild members around watched in extreme amusement. Mazart was the second in command here and took his boss's safety very seriously. "Did you kill any of those bastards before you were taken out, Ridwig?"

Ridwig, happy for the distraction, pushed Mazart away and looked at Kirito. "I managed to kill two of them before I was overpowered. And it's nice to see you're still alive, Kirito. But then again, it was Dragon's Kings who took you. Redwing loves your strength too much to order your death."

At the mention of Redwing, Kirito scowled deeply and stepped into the HQ. "About that, earlier you were asking me for information on them." He said as he walked over to Ridwig. "After what I had to go through today with them, I'm more than willing to tell you if you let me help in thwarting their plans and of course, if you pay me."

"Really?" Mazart deadpanned as he rubbed his green eyes. "I don't know why Redwing and Ridwig put up with you. Your services are so expensive."

"And for good reason. I work so hard for you guys." Kirito retorted as he stared at Mazart. He moved his eyes to Ridwig. "Redwing wants me to work for him on what he has planned so I am privy to the information. For a price, being a double agent for you and helping you with your counterplan, I want 100,000 col and a third of it paid in advance."

Ridwig began to choke on the air he was breathing in as soon he heard the price.

"Oh?" Kirito asked slyly. "Is that price too steep for the Holy Knights Allegiance? And here I thought it was cheap for what I was going to do for you." He crossed his arms and smirked at Ridwig. "I am the best mercenary in the game, Ridwig. You know I don't come cheap."

"Are you sure you aren't a con artist?" Mazart retorted, glaring at Kirito.

"Well, if you want to believe that, I don't have to offer my services to you, go work solely for Dragon's Kings, and help them achieve all that glory while Holy Knights Allegiance is left totally forgotten." Kirito told him in such a causal tone it was like he was talking about the weather.

And with those words, there was ensuring chaos among the present guild members as they screamed about crushing Dragon's Kings and making sure they got no glory. Really, sometimes Kirito really did have to wonder just how Ridwig and Redwing managed to drag their guild mates into their rivalry like this. But right now was not one of the times he would question it. He was going to work that guild rivalry to his advantage.

"QUIET!" Ridwig screamed loudly to shut up his guild.

Immediately, the guild quieted and Kirito blinked. What? Were they soldiers trained to immediately obey the orders of their leader?

Ridwig nodded in satisfaction at the silence and looked at Kirito. "What are they planning?"

"Their plan is to raid the boss of this floor with just their guild and me so that they could get all the honor and glory that comes from defeating it." Kirito explained.

"The boss?" Ridwig muttered. They were going after the boss alone? If they actually managed to defeat it, they would get more recognition and probably be named the strongest guild in Aincrad. That just wouldn't do. He couldn't let Redwing get ahead of him. "I understand, but you were with Dragon's Kings for a while, Kirito. Why should I believe you are here to truly work with us on this?"

Anger entered Kirito's eyes as he glared at the wall. "The PvP tournament."

"What about it?" Mazart asked.

"The match between Redwing and me to decide the winner." Kirito growled. "That bastard purposely slowed his reaction in the last moment of the fight so I would win." He slammed his hand on the closest table to him and moved his angry gaze to Ridwig. "His guild bet all their money on me as the winner so they would be assured a big income from the fight. I want to destroy them for the shame they brought upon my fight."

"They rigged the match?" Ridwig asked shocked. "Yes, I see." He put a hand to his chin. "That would explain why you disappeared so fast after your match that day and why there seemed to be tension among you and Dragon's Kings. They injured your honor and pride as a swordsman." Nodding his head, Ridwig opened a trade window with Kirito. "With that anger in you, I know you will be loyal to helping us defeat Dragon's Kings, Kirito." He transferred 33,000 col over to Kirito, who quickly accepted the advanced payment.

Perhaps he should feel bad about scamming these two guilds since they were a good source of jobs for a mercenary like him. But then again, he was actually having a lot of fun with his plan to pit the two guilds against each other. They really made it too easy.

"Then I should tell you, Ridwig. They are planning to raid the dungeon tomorrow at two." Kirito replied.

"What?" Ridwig shouted before calming himself with a frown. "We can't let them get to the boss before us, but we need time to prepare. We don't even know the route to the boss room."

Kirito coughed. "You've hired me for scouting jobs before and now you are completely forgetting that fact." He manipulated his menu to find his map data. "I already located the boss room."

"Seriously?" Lirus said excitedly, leaning over Kirito's shoulder.

Kirito pushed the player away from him. Lirus was an odd one. He acted like a hyperactive, excitable child which made Kirito think he was around his age. "Yes, I do spend a lot of time in dungeons. Though you guys are still going to need time to prepare for a raid, but if you want to beat Dragon's Kings, I highly suggest you go tomorrow before two."

Ridwig hummed thoughtfully and rubbed his chin. "Good point. Mazart, how long will it take us to prepare for a raid?"

"Hmm, most of our members already have updated equipment so we just need to inform the guild of our plans of a raid, get the route to the boss room, and any information that Kirito has about the monsters in the dungeon. Once we get that and the party formed, it is up to you to come up with the battle formation and we should be good." Mazart replied.

"Alright, I'll work on the battle strategy with Kirito's help. Mazart, you inform the guild of our plans and start getting parties together." Ridwig ordered before turning to Kirito. "I'll need your help with the battle strategy, along with you giving me information about the monsters in the dungeon." He paused and thought for a moment. "Actually let's do that first so Mazart can form parties that will be efficient in dealing with the monsters. Oh, and did you get a look at the boss, Kirito?"

Kirito collapsed in a chair at that table that Ridwig was sitting at and nodded his head. "Yeah, I saw it. I briefly entered the boss room earlier and came face to face with it. Its name is «Smot, Ruler of Fire» and he wields a scythe….."

 **A/N: I like the names Redwing and Ridwig, but I am beginning to think I shouldn't have used both so closely together. I keep mixing up which one is the sword user and the dagger user. Then I keep messing up which one is in charge of which guild. So freaking complicated.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed!**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Chapter 4**

A part of Kazuto was beginning to regret what he had done. His black eyes stared focused on his monitors. On one of them were two different conversations going at once. One was for the Holy Knights Allegiance and the other was for Dragon's Kings. He was invited to both of their chats so he was aware of their plans that they were discussing for the raid tomorrow.

After he finished with Holy Knights Allegiance earlier, he went to meet Redwing again and told him how Ridwig and his guild were planning to raid the dungeon at one tomorrow. With that in mind, Redwing decided to raid the dungeon at twelve. That had perfectly set up both guilds to raid the dungeon tomorrow with an hour between them. Now he just had to lead them to where he wanted without them knowing that he was setting them up until it was time.

The problem was helping both of the guilds. He had to work with Dragon's Kings first, then Holy Knights' Allegiance. He wasn't sure if he would have enough time to get Dragon's Kings set up and then get to Holy Knights Allegiance. Gaining the trust of both of the guilds was actually the easy part in all of this. Tomorrow was going to be the hardest part so he needed to have all the information about the raid strategy from both guilds memorized and pray he didn't mess them up.

He was sure that after tomorrow both guilds would be much more careful about giving information out to anyone, especially solo player mercenaries who held loyalty to no one.

Sighing, Kazuto grabbed his water bottle and started to guzzle down the refreshing liquid. After hours of gaming, his body always felt so drained and exhausted. It was mentally exhausting and left him starving and dying of thirst. Staying in virtual reality for so long was dangerous for the body which is why he always tried to take breaks after playing for so long so he could take care of his body. He was a hardcore gamer, but he wasn't going to neglect his health.

But that wasn't to say he wasn't reckless with his gaming for SAO. He took those breaks, but the longest he stayed logged off was about five to six hours. And those hours logged off were just to sleep. His love for the game didn't let him sleep longer than six hours because he wanted to be logged back into the game.

Looking at another one of his monitors, Kazuto scanned through the private SAO forums that were just for beta testers and the development team of SAO. It required a password to get on it since it was a place for the beta testers to discuss the game and any bugs they found so the developers could work on repairing them. Another one of the forums on this private site was a place for the beta testers to discuss the game and what they liked about it or what they encountered.

Of course, hyping the game was a part of beta testers job if they really enjoyed the game so a lot of beta testers, Kazuto included, spent time on open forums to talk about how great the game is to make it more popular with those gamers who didn't get picked for the beta test. Seeing as it took time away from playing SAO, Kazuto usually got on the forums during a small break from the game and just left a quick comment and would reply to anyone who responded to him in his next break from the game.

"Akihiko-san really knows how to make a good game." Kazuto mumbled to himself, determined to never let Aki-nii-san accidentally escape his lips again. He said it to his mom the other day, but he wouldn't do it again. He got the game from Akihiko-san so there was no way he would call him that again. With a smile, he scrolled through the messages on the forum about the game and about floor six. Just like the floors before it, it was amazing with new creative ideas. To think, Akihiko-san and his team made 100 floors like this. He couldn't wait to see them all. "I wonder where this dream of a floating castle came from. I have to ask him sometime."

Looking away from the forums, Kazuto looked back at the guild conversations about the raids tomorrow. It seemed that each guild had managed to gather up eight parties of six. That would make 48 players from each guild but adding him would make it 49. It was a decent number for a raid. Well, if all the players they chose were able to keep up in a raid and not get killed. Some players just weren't cut out for raids or boss fights.

Not that it really mattered though.

Neither guild would be making it to the boss room tomorrow.

 ***Beater***

Kirito stood back, reading his map of the dungeon while two of the parties for the Dragon's Kings raid took care of the monsters that appeared during their trek. Yesterday he informed Redwing and Siren how to deal with the «Salamander Slaves». Afterwards, they informed their guild members that were coming to the raid. Being told how to handle them wasn't the best. They needed actual experience fighting them. Luckily, Kirito knew some of the top players of this guild have been in this dungeon before so he knew they already had an idea and they could help their guild mates who needed it.

Which is why Kirito was hanging back and looking at his map. Since he was a solo player, he didn't bother to join any of the parties and was just working on leading them through the dungeon to the "boss room." Normally he would be more than eager to jump into the fights, but it would take him longer if he soloed them. He needed to get through this quickly so he was letting the parties annihilate all the mobs that were getting in their way.

"How much farther do we have to go?" Redwing asked Kirito. He had the map as well since Kirito gave it to him, but since the mercenary had already been there, it would be easier to just follow his direction.

"We're almost there." Kirito replied as he closed his map. "It's just around this bend up here." He pointed ahead of the group, though it was hard to see as far as they needed to since the only light was some lanterns on the walls.

"Then let's move. I want to be taking care of «Smot» before Ridwig gets here." Redwing replied.

"Hmm, sounds good. I doubt Ridwig will interfere in your battle against «Smot». He would prefer you all to get killed in the battle and then his guild could take a shot at him." Kirito said as he folded his arms casually behind his head as he started to trek forward.

A smirk spread across Redwing's face. "Too bad we are not going to get killed today. We will be the ones to conquer this floor!" He declared loudly so his guild could hear him. The declaration got him the excited cheers he was hoping for that would pump them up for the coming boss battle.

As they walked down the pathway, a traitorous part of Kirito's mind started to tell him he still had time to cancel his plan. He didn't have to go through with making both guilds hate him. If he stopped and took Dragon's Kings to the real boss room right now, he would only make Holy Knights Allegiance mad at him.

But the other part of Kirito was screaming at him to do it, to go through with this plan. He might regret it later. He might not, but he just had to know how this story would end.

Dismissing any hesitation that he had, Kirito led the guild around the last bend and stopped in front of the towering stone doors that were there. The stone doors had a strange design going up and down them that looked like some strange language.

Redwing looked at the door in awe but also with a frown. "What is this? It looks like some type of language."

Behind him, Kirito's eyes narrowed with dark amusement. That was part of the reason he chose this room to be where he set his trap for both of the guilds. No one knew this language and it would be impossible to decipher. Only those who found the quest for this particular room could understand the words. And as far as he knew, he was the only one to have found it. So as he stared at the door, those words shifted only for his eyes and told him the hidden message.

 _Traveling warrior,_

 _To gain that which you desire,_

 _It takes more than the strength you possess._

 _In the end, to gain that which you seek,_

 _It all comes down to a battle._

 _Who will win the war?_

 _Be warned though, traveler,_

 _Death awaits all who betray their true selves._

 _Which is stronger?_

 _Desire or Heart?_

 _The answer will be your salvation._

Kirito entered this room alone once but nothing came. There was nothing for him to fight so he couldn't find the answer to this. If he couldn't answer it and gain the item he was supposed to find here, he couldn't complete the quest. He could easily give up on the quest, but he wanted to see this through to the end so he was sticking it out.

So looking at the line _'it takes more than the strength you possess,'_ Kirito decided to use his annoyance with the guilds to his advantage and bring them here. The scripture spoke of a battle which is why Holy Knights Allegiance would be joining them and he was making them try to overpower the other. He was sure both guilds ending up in the same room and wanting to destroy the boss would make them rage battle.

He was betting everything on it.

Kirito walked forward and pushed his hand against the door. Only those who accepted the quest could open this door. If someone else tried, the door would not budge which Kirito learned when he tried to open the door the other day before he found the quest. With that knowledge in mind, Kirito knew that as soon as Dragon's Kings was in here and the door was closed, they would not be able to leave. It would give him time to get Holy Knights Allegiance here.

Pushing against the doors with both hands, Kirito stepped forward as the doors started to open. Knowing that was enough to get them to swing open the rest of the way on their own, Kirito removed his arms and took a step back.

"This is it!" Redwing declared as he drew his sword out of his sheath and swung it forward towards the "boss room." With that action alone, the members from Dragon's Kings charged into the room, drawing their weapons as they went.

As the players rushed past Kirito, he started to take steps back from the room. So intent on getting into the room, none of the players noticed what he was doing.

Soon, all the players had entered his trap and he was far enough away from the room that the doors slammed shut. Without the player who was doing the quest being sensed near the doorway, the doors deemed it time for them to shut.

Checking the time in the corner of his screen, Kirito resisted the urge to yell and instead spun around and raced back through the dungeon. The mobs near the quest room weren't going to respawn anytime soon so it saved Kirito some time, but he was sure the ones near the entrance would be getting in his way.

Well, he had ten minutes to get back as fast as he could so he could meet Holy Knights Allegiance outside the dungeon. If need be, he could make up an excuse as to why he was coming out of the dungeon.

 ***Dragon's Kings***

The players slowed their charge to come to a stop as they looked around in confusion. They heard the doors slam shut behind them and expected the boss to then appear, but nothing came. Besides them, it was completely empty.

The room they were in was huge with pillars on both sides of it. Torches hung on the pillars and a chandelier hung from the ceiling. All were lit with orange flames that gave the only light in the room. On the other side of the room was another set of doors.

"Kirito, what is–" Redwing stopped as he looked around for the mercenary, but didn't see him anywhere. "Kirito?"

"He's not here." Siren growled, eyes narrowed in anger as they scanned over the players in search for the mercenary. "Did he set us up? Tch, I knew it was bad idea to trust his word about helping us instead of Holy Knights Allegiance. He and Ridwig look too close to each other in the forest yesterday, like they trusted each other completely."

Redwing frowned as he swung his sword back in its sheath. He heard Siren's trusts issues yesterday but he pushed it off since Kirito trusted anyone he was with to watch his back when he was surrounded by someone.

Maybe it was his fault. Maybe he was being too trustworthy. As a solo player and a mercenary, Kirito's loyalty was almost nonexistent. But there were times when he displayed such great loyalty that it was hard to discern whether he was really loyal or not. It would be so much easier if he just chose whether to be a main mercenary for Dragon's Kings or Holy Knights Allegiance.

Sighing, Redwing went back to the doors to leave the room and found to his horror that the doors wouldn't budge at all. Why? Kirito opened them so easily earlier. There was no reason for them to be locked like this.

"Siren! Try to open the other door!" Redwing ordered.

"Yes sir." Siren replied quickly as he ran to the other end of the room and slammed his hands into the door. He pushed against them with all his might, but they didn't budge. "It's no good. The doors are locked." Furious at this turn of events, Siren slammed his hand against the door, though it did nothing to change their current situation.

Unlike Redwing and Siren, Henrik was finding great amusement in their predicament as evident by his sudden laughter that filled up the room, echoing off of the wall. "It seems we got played. Maybe he is still mad over what happened at the PvP tournament?" Henrik suggested.

Redwing, furious and wanting to kick the door, resisted the urge. He didn't want to showcase that in front of his guild. Instead, he turned to look at Henrik. "I paid him 33,000 col and promised him four items from the raid. You think that would be enough to pay him back for that."

"Tch, who really knows what _he_ thinks." Jaxen growled as he rested his spear on his shoulder and looked around the room they were imprisoned in. He couldn't believe that this happened. Of all things, he didn't expect to get trapped in a room in a dungeon today. They couldn't message anyone about their predicament. And being in a dungeon, they couldn't logout. The only positive thing was that they weren't immediately swarmed with monsters upon entering the room. So was this a safe area or something else? Whatever the case, Kirito better not leave them locked in here forever.

"I think I just might kill Kirito after this." Siren growled as he made his way back over to his leader. Even Redwing couldn't be thinking of still not wanting to kill Kirito after this.

 ***Kirito***

Kirito slashed through the last «Salamander Slave» that was in his path. As it burst into polygons, a rewards window popped up in front of him. He only gave it a quick glance over before he closed it and made his way to the exit of the dungeon.

The blaring sun assaulted his eyes and made him cover his eyes for shade as he took in the guild that was waiting outside.

"Kirito?" Ridwig said surprised. "You were in the dungeon?"

Kirito chuckled and swung his sword back in its sheath on his back. "I wanted to get some grinding in before we went to take care of the boss." He replied easily. "Are you guys prepared?"

"Yes, we were only waiting on you." Ridwig replied as he walked towards Kirito. "Any news on Dragon's Kings?"

"Their plans haven't changed. They still plan to raid the dungeon in an hour." The lie rolled off his tongue too easily, but Kirito dismissed the feeling of betrayal he was starting to feel. Why was he doing this again? Yesterday he planned this mission of his to get the guilds off his back, but why? Sure, they annoyed him at times and got in his way yesterday with their rivalry, but he always found so much amusement in it. Why did he want them to go to war again? He didn't want to make them hate him….did he?

Kirito blinked as he reentered the dungeon with Holy Knights Allegiance. Did his desire to wage war on the guilds start yesterday?

 ***Yesterday***

"Greetings, young traveler."

Kirito blinked at the NPC he found in a safe area in the dungeon. It was very rare to find an NPC in a dungeon, but when they were found it was usually because of a dungeon quest. These quests were much harder than normal quests and usually took place in the dungeon, but the rewards for them were a lot more appealing.

"Hello sir." Kirito greeted as he walked towards the NPC. "What are you doing in such a place as this?" As he stood in front of him, Kirito saw that this NPC was dressed in armor and had a sword at his side. Was he a soldier NPC?

"Will you listen to my story?" The soldier NPC asked.

Kirito nodded. "Yes, I will."

"It started last week. My squad and I heard that a weapon could be found in here that would be able to defeat the monster in this dungeon."

Kirito brows rose in surprise at that. A weapon that could defeat the boss? Normally, the boss fights wouldn't need a special weapon to be defeated. Was it really needed? Or was it just an extra weapon that would help defeat the boss? Make the fight easier on the raid party?

"We came here to seek the weapon, but when we entered the room to retrieve it, we were told a battle must be fought and won to claim it. We know we needed this weapon so we allowed ourselves to fight among ourselves." The soldier NPC cast his weary eyes down to the ground in between him and Kirito. "In the end, they were all slaughtered. My whole squad, and yet the weapon did not appear in front of me. I do not know why. We waged war against each other in order to gain a weapon to help defeat the boss, but when it didn't appear and I was the only one left, I felt so defeated. All my friends are gone. I lost them all and yet the weapon didn't even appear!"

Kirito watched in surprise as the NPC in front of him showed absolute despair over the loss of his friends. He probably killed some of them to gain this weapon. But were they really that desperate for it? Just for a weapon, they would turn on each other? It didn't make any sense. But then again, would he do the same thing? For a grand weapon that would help defeat a boss, would he kill his own comrades?

"Traveling warrior, I beseech you." The soldier NPC spoke again, sounding almost desperate to Kirito. "Please, retrieve the weapon and bring it to me. After all that has happened, I cannot go back home empty handed after I promised my village I would retrieve the weapon that would slay the demon in this dungeon."

"I will do as you have requested." Kirito replied instantly. He always enjoyed dungeon quests. They always brought something new and interesting. "I will retrieve this weapon for you." Though, he had absolutely no idea of how he would do it.

A window popped up in front of him to say the dungeon quest had been accepted.

Almost instantly after he got it, he felt a weird feeling pass through him. It felt like a cold wind that iced his very insides.

Kirito blinked and looked down at his hands. That was weird. Nothing has ever happened like that before. But since the feeling was now gone, Kirito brushed it off and began to look for the room that held the weapon he needed.

 ***Beater***

Kirito's eyes took in the message on the doors in front of him, eyes glazing over as he read the scripture for the first time. His strength not being enough? A battle? Desire? Heart? None of it was making any sense to him at all.

Well, he wasn't going to figure it out just standing here so Kirito moved forward and put his hand on the door to push it open.

The moment his hand landed on it, Kirito saw dark shadows creeping out of the cracks that wrapped around his arm and up to his shoulder. Eyes widening in shock, Kirito went to pull his hand back, but it wasn't budging. He brought his other hand up to grab his wrist and pull at it, but it still refused to move from the door.

Shadows wafted around him and soon Kirito saw nothing back black.

He wasn't sure how long it was for, but Kirito saw nothing and could not move. After the shadows took over him, the next thing he knew was that he was lying on the ground outside the door, staring at the ceiling of the dungeon. His eyes moved over to look at his status bar, but nothing was wrong. No decreased health. No status effects.

Despite that, he still felt so heavy. His heart in particular. It felt like he was lost in an endless void with no one around. It felt lonely and painful, but there was a desire. A desire for something. He wasn't sure what that desire was, but he desperately needed something and would do anything to achieve it.

 ***Kirito–Present***

That's right. The quest. He had to complete the quest. That was why he was leading the guilds to wage war. He needed to call forth the weapon. That was all that mattered right now.

Kirito looked over at Ridwig and Mazart. From what he read in their conversations yesterday, Ridwig and Mazart were in charge of two of the main attack forces for the boss fight. Tal and Jax were in charge of the parties that would be handling the mobs that got in their way on their journey to Kirito's trap. This was so the main attack forces could save their energy for the main fight.

Kirito looked over at Jax. The player was a pretty female with long black hair tied in a braid and striking crystal blue eyes. She wielded a spear and was quite a formidable opponent. Pretty, but Kirito never trusted the female players. He knew that a lot of guy players played as females so the amount of females was actually a lot less. It was safer to just avoid getting near them at all.

As Kirito looked at his map to make sure he was taking the right path to get the guild to the second doorway of the room, he found himself suddenly getting impatient. Why weren't Tal and Jax taking care of the mobs faster? They needed to get to Dragon's Kings. They needed to be fighting already.

This was taking too long.

Kirito's eyes narrowed in frustration.

"Ha! Nice one, Jax!" Tal compliment as the spear wielder slashed through two «Salamander Slaves» in an instant.

Kirito blinked at the voice and found himself rubbing his temple. Why was he getting frustrated? This was the fun of MMOs. He always had so much fun raiding dungeons before. There was no need for this impatience.

But everything was so close to being completed.

Kirito's heart suddenly pounded against his ribcage in eagerness. His heart was screaming out for that grand weapon to be in his hands. He needed it _soon._ It was the only way he would get satisfaction. He needed to _wield_ that _power_ as _his own_. It was for _him_. Not that soldier NPC.

Ridwig glanced over at Kirito and almost did a double take when he saw the dark look covering his face. The Kirito he usually saw was calm and always wearing a smirk or smile. Sometimes it was a frown, but it never looked so dark and intimidating. Did he really almost look….evil? Or was it just the lightning? It was hard to see in the dungeon and one of the torches was casting a shadow on Kirito's face so it just had to be that, right?

As soon as the mobs were killed, Kirito started to move forward again, but at a slightly faster pace than before.

Ridwig stayed behind, instead of following Kirito at his pace like before. He turned to look at Mazart with a frown. "Is Kirito acting weird today?"

"He's always weird." Mazart replied with a bored shrug.

"Well, I guess that's true." Ridwig muttered as he looked back at Kirito's back. "But this seems like a….darker weirdness."

"A darker weirdness?" Mazart snickered. "Really, Ridwig? Just say it straight out. You want to know if I see any evil portrayed in his expression."

Ridwig looked surprised for a moment before chuckling softly. "You have gotten good at reading me in the past month, Mazart." He nodded. "Yes, that is what I want to know. So do you?"

Mazart moved his eyes to look over Kirito. "Well, I wouldn't say that I feel evil from him, but something about his presence does feel different than usual." He shrugged in a helpless manner. "Can't tell you why his presence feels darker than usual. Maybe something is happening IRL for him and it's affecting him here."

"I guess that could be it."

"Just leave it be. His problems are his own. For now, you need to focus on the coming raid." Mazart replied.

The guild leader nodded and pushed the weirdness of Kirito out of his mind. They were on their way to the boss room to defeat the boss before Dragon's Kings got anywhere near the dungeon. He would finally show Redwing at last who was the better one between them. The plan was to show him this during the PvP tournament, but Kirito defeated him in the semifinals so he never got to face Redwing there. But in a way this was better. He could prove his strength and leadership, as well as the power of his guild by defeating the boss here.

 ***Beater***

"So, this is it." Ridwig said, taking in the massive stone doors that Kirito led them too. "This is where Smot is located?"

Kirito nodded. "Yes, he is waiting inside." He replied with the words tasting bitter on his tongue. Is this really how he wanted things to go down? He held no loyalties to any one guild or party in particular. They just hired him out, but that didn't mean he didn't like the players. They did generally amuse him and he did consider them in-game friends.

But the power….that weapon….his heart was screaming for him to get it.

His hand reached forward and gently laid against the door. With the weakest push, the doors started to slide open. Light poured out of the room and Kirito started to walk backwards to hide from the players in there. While he moved backwards, the players from Holy Knights Allegiance started to charge forward with Ridwig leading them.

Kirito felt the wind from the rushing players whip across his face. The way they were running…it felt like he was watching them move at the speed of light since they all just looked like blurs to him. Their battle cries never met his ears since all he heard was his rapidly beating heart.

This was it.

They would battle and destroy each other for him.

Blending into the shadows along the walls, Kirito slithered into the room, sticking to the shadows as he watched Holy Knights Allegiance come to a halt inside the room. As Kirito moved along the walls and farther into the shadows, the doors slammed shut, locking all the players in the room.

With the doors slamming shut, wind blew across the room. With each flame it hit, it turned into a black flame that gave very little light to the room.

"Ridwig?" Redwing snarled as he pushed through his guild to get to Ridwig. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Me?" Redwing retorted. "What are you doing here? I came here to fight the boss before you could _attempt_ to."

"Attempt?" Redwing replied, eyes narrowing. "Are you implying that my guild wouldn't be able to win?"

"Quite honestly, with your lousy leadership skills, I'm surprised your guild lasted this long." Ridwig retorted harshly and it was followed with a cruel laugh.

"At least I'm not weak." Redwing snapped back. "You only lasted two minutes against Kirito in your match against him. What does that say about Holy Knights Allegiance?"

Kirito watched, a bit surprised, at how harsh the two were being. They were never harsh like this to each other. Actually, he was surprised they didn't realize he betrayed them both by trapping them in here.

But Kirito pushed the thoughts of them acting weird away. They were arguing and being very cruel to one another. This is what he wanted. It would lead to them battling. The more heated they got, the sooner they would fight. But….

Kirito's eyes narrowed as he watched them trading insults with the guild members shouting in agreement. He didn't want to wait for them to get heated enough to draw their weapons. They needed to fight _now._ To kill each other _now._

His hand traveled to the back of his belt and he slid a throwing knife out of it. He had throwing picks as well, but he wanted something that would make more a statement and do more damage.

Making sure he was standing behind Holy Knights Allegiance, Kirito brought his throwing knife back and activated a sword skill which he then released. The knife flew passed all the Holy Knights Allegiance players and headed straight for its target, which was Siren. The second-in-command who wasn't expecting the attack had no time to dodge and the knife imbedded itself in his shoulder.

Redwing twisted around in surprise as he watched the knife slam into his friend's shoulder. Blinded by anger that his friend was attacked, Redwing whipped back around as he pulled his sword out. He swung it down and pointed it straight at Ridwig's face. "So, it's like that, is it, Ridwig?" A scowl formed on his face. "I see. This was all a trap you orchestrated just to kill us, isn't it? So you can get to the boss first without any obstacles!""

Ridwig laughed harshly at that. "And what? Is this you trying to twist your actions around to make us look like the bad guy here? Wasn't it truly you who set us up?!" He yanked his dagger out of its sheath and used it to knock away Redwing's sword. "Well, if that's how you want it, then we shall kill you first before proceeding to the boss's room. Defeating you and the boss will show just how much more superior my guild is!" A dark smirk crept onto his face with that proclamation and he raised his dagger towards the ceiling. "Now, my guild, destroy Dragon's Kings!"

That order. It was that order that had Kirito grinning madly. He watched in dark eagerness as Holy Knights Allegiance charged forward, weapons already drawn from their initial charge into the room. Being more prepared than Dragon's Kings, it took Ridwig's men a moment to adjust themselves to the situation.

Mazart jumped in front of Redwing and charged at Ridwig with a sword skill activated, but before the attack could connect, Siren parried the attacked and knocked Mazart away from his leader.

"Don't falter!" Ridwig screamed at his guild over the chaos. "Fall back and regroup. Watch each other's backs and take out the enemy!"

The members of Dragon's Kings who were able to draw their weapons fast enough pushed ahead to defend the players who weren't able to. Those who were still weaponless did as Ridwig ordered and fell back in order to regain themselves. Those who got attacked and already lost health drank a healing potion before drawing their weapons and nodded at their teammates.

"Switch!" Selene, a rapier user of Dragon's Kings, shouted as she charged back forward.

Noticing her, Henrik knocked back Tal's sword and jumped back just as Selene reached the two with the sword skill «linear» activated. With his sword knocked up by Henrik, Tal wasn't able to defend against it and felt the rapier slam into his chest with enough force that it sent him flying backwards into one his guild members.

Ridwig growled and charged at Redwing. Kill the leader. That was where his mind was taking him. If he killed the leader, it would bring the morale down on the Dragon's Kings side and make them that much easier to kill.

The very same thought was running through Redwing's mind with his sword in the position to activate the «horizontal» sword skill.

His sharp eyes catching the action, Ridwig pulled his dagger back into the position for «flash star». The sword glowed red as it soared through the air to block Redwing's sword. The dagger knocked the sword up into the air. With the sword out of the way, Ridwig's arm automatically readjusted with the assist system and brought the dagger slashing down onto Redwing's chest. An orange gash ripped through Redwing's chest as he stumbled back.

Redwing regained his footing and swung his sword at Ridwig, who ducked and backed up. He spun his dagger in his hand so the blade ran down his forearm. His arm lifted with the blade facing upwards so he could block the next strike from Redwing. As soon as the sword hit his dagger, Ridwig pushed off the ground and lunged at Redwing with his dagger flying forward to cut him. But at the last second, Redwing sidestepped the attack and swung his sword up towards Ridwig, who didn't have the balance to dodge so instead he lifted his arm which was covered in an armguard and used that to block the sword. Though it worked in keeping him from getting seriously injured, it caused him to lose some HP and the attack was so hard that it sent him flying forward.

Ridwig twisted in the air, slammed a hand on the ground, and flipped himself over to land on his feet in a crouch.

 ***Kirito***

' _Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.´_ Kirito smirked as he watched his plan unfold in front of his very eyes. Soon, oh, very soon, they will have all killed each other. And if one survived, he could easily kill that person who has been weakened from the fighting. And once that happens, he can gain the grand weapon he heard about here. He just needed to make it appear.

But….

Kirito blinked as he watched the two guilds slaughter each other. They were aiming to kill each other like he planned….but…it didn't feel right. These two guilds while being rivals, were also friends. He knew Ridwig and Redwing argued and fought, but he also knew how close they were from watching their interactions.

Siren and Mazart. A lot of the time, he saw the two together, moaning and pitying themselves while arguing that their guild master was worse. They made it a game to see which guild master drove their second-in-command most insane that week.

In the past boss fights, he has seen the two guilds work together. They worked so closely together and yet now, looking at this, it felt like that was a lie. They so easily fell into the battle mode where they would kill each other. All it took was for them to throw insults back and forth and for him to throw a knife and they were ready to kill each other. If they were really friends, shouldn't it have taken more than just that?

No. Kirito shook his head. It wasn't his problem to know how easily they fell like this. This is what he wanted. He wanted this so he could gain that power. He would make the weapon appear.

Though…Kirito watched as Ridwig and Redwing fought in the middle of the room. Their blades clashed against one another so many times as they blocked each other's attacks at an amazing speed.

Isn't this what the NPC soldier said he did? Didn't he slaughter his comrades and became the last one standing but nothing happened? The weapon didn't appear then….

Why would it appear this time just because he made the situation the same?

Was he missing something? Was there some condition that he was missing?

Kirito watched as a player burst into polygons as he was killed. Another player soon followed him.

Was this really the right thing to do? Did he really desire a grand weapon so much that he would manipulate his acquaintances like this so they would kill each other for him?

Someone so eager to sacrifice others' lives for his own greed is not what he wanted to be known by. He enjoyed games and PvP, but not like this. This wasn't what he liked to do at all. It wasn't who he was. Did his greed really lead him so far down? To betray the people who trusted him? Sure, they hired him for mercenary jobs for his skills, but that was also because they trusted in him. The trust they gave him….he manipulated them so easily because they did trust him. He abused that trust. How horrible of a person did that make him?

If it took all of this to make a grand weapon appear….if it took causing these two guilds to murder each other at his manipulation, then he didn't even want the weapon. He didn't care if it meant failing the quest. He couldn't let this continue. He needed to stop Dragon's Kings and Holy Knights Allegiance.

But how? Just looking at the maliciousness on all the players' faces, he could tell that they were all too far gone.

 ***Redwing & Ridwig***

Redwing landed on the ground, panting a bit as he glanced at his health bar to see it in the yellow. His eyes moved to Ridwig's to see his health bar also in the yellow. It seemed that they were equally matched. The very thought irritated him. He had to end this now.

His sword fell into the pre-motion for the «vertical arc» skill. As soon as the assist system noticed the action, the sword started to glow blue.

Ridwig seemed to be thinking about ending this fight as well since his dagger fell into the position for «spike».

The two guild leaders charged at each other with their eyes narrowed in concentration as their minds worked out frantically of how to dodge the other's attack, but make theirs hit.

"Die, Ridwig!" Redwing snarled.

"I'll send you to hell." Ridwig growled.

Their attacks flew forward just as a black blur charge between them with his arms thrown out.

Ridwig and Redwing stared in shock, but once a skill was started, it was not able to be stopped. «Spike» was a dagger skill that slammed into the enemy two times before the third strike impaled itself in the target. «Vertical arc» was a two combo attack that slashed through the enemy twice to make a 'V.'

It was the same skill that Kirito used against Redwing to win in their battle.

To think that Redwing would get the chance to slash it through Kirito…

Redwing watched in shock as his sword and Ridwig's dagger tore through Kirito who just appeared out of nowhere to stop the two from killing each other. What was he doing? This had nothing to do with him!

"Kirito?" Ridwig shouted in surprise as his dagger slammed rapidly into Kirito's chest two times before the third strike caused his dagger to embed itself in the solo mercenary. He leaned forward, standing over Kirito with his dagger not being pulled out as he watched Kirito's HP bar continue to drop. It didn't help that Redwing's sword was finishing slashing «vertical arc» from behind Kirito.

"Don't…" Kirito said, grimacing at the uncomfortable feeling traveling through all his nerves from both attacks. "My fault. Don't kill each other."

As he finished speaking, Ridwig noticed too late that Kirito's HP was down to zero and the mercenary burst into polygons, leaving his dagger hanging in the air with nothing there. All around the black flames transitioned into green flames.

For a moment, there was still chaos and the sound of weapons clanging against each other. But only for a moment more before it was all gone.

Ridwig blinked and looked up at Redwing with a frown. The leader of Dragon's Kings was holding his head and looking around in confusion.

"Were…were we just trying to kill each other?" Redwing asked.

"Seems like it." Ridwig replied as he swung his dagger down and put it in his sheath. He rubbed the back of his head. "Today has…"

He was cut off when a bright golden light illuminated throughout the room, blinding all the players around. Following it was the room shaking and from under Ridwig's foot, he felt the ground shifting, like it was rising up. Since it was right under his foot, it caused him to lose balance and stumble backwards while still not being able to see because of the blinding light.

As the light started to die down, Ridwig cracked his eyes open and was surprised to see a pedestal in front of him. In the center of it, he saw a sword stabbed into it.

"Well, this is certainly strange." Redwing said as he jumped onto the pedestal and made his way over to the sword. "I wonder…" His hand wrapped around the hilt as he prepared to pull it, but the moment he did, sparks like lightning flashed from it and slammed into his hand. A burning feeling hit his nerves. Not something that hurt, but shocked him and he yanked his hand away and waved it out. "Well, that was aggressive."

"And shocking." Ridwig said, which made Redwing twitch in annoyance. Was he mocking him? "I've never seen anything like this before."

"I think you were correct earlier, Ridwig." Mazart said as he walked over to his leader as he swung his sword in the sheath on his back.

Ridwig looked back at him in confusion. "About what?"

"Kirito." Mazart replied with a frown. "I've been doing some thinking about it since you brought it up. That darkness he was displaying earlier. I said it might have to do with something IRL, but the closer we got to this room, the more I saw that it felt like a dark intent and he seemed to be getting impatient. Plus, once we entered this room, he disappeared completely. Well, up until the moment he let himself get killed by you and Redwing."

"Kirito?" Redwing butted in with a frown. "He's the one who brought you here?"

"Yeah, of course, who else would…" Ridwig paused and looked at Redwing in surprise. "He brought you here too?"

Redwing nodded.

"Tch," Siren growled. "We've been set up by that damn mercenary."

 ***Kirito***

"Now, hear me out." Kirito said nervously, holding his hands up in front of him to show he met no harm. Though, he felt greatly threatened, for some reason, his heart felt so light and free. It hasn't felt like this since before he had accepted that dungeon quest.

"I am not feeling that willing to do that." Siren growled with his sword stopped an inch from Kirito's nose.

Kirito tried to take another step back, but his foot just hit the wall behind him. He chuckled a bit nervously. Siren always did have a bit of a temper, especially when it came to a betrayal like this. "Uh, Redwing, a little help. Call off your dog!"

Redwing raised a brow and looked over at Ridwig. "What do you think?"

"Hmm," Ridwig rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. He did stop us from slaughtering each other by having us kill him, but he was the one who put us in that situation in the first place."

"I can explain!" Kirito replied quickly. "Don't you think it's weird that you were so eager to kill each other? You guys fell into that malicious state too easily, right?"

Siren's eyes narrowed. That was true. While their guilds were rivals and they wanted to one up the other, they never truly felt the need to slaughter one another the way they were trying to the other day. "Explain." He growled.

"Uh, well, it was a dungeon quest." Kirito said, and those words caught the attention of both guilds. The mercenary was really wishing he didn't hurry to return to the sixth floor dungeon so fast after being killed. But he figured he should. His quest wasn't finished so the guilds couldn't get out of the room until he opened the doors again. "You see, I found an NPC in the dungeon and he gave him a quest that has to do with this room. You saw the doors, right? They had a weird design on them. But to those who accept the quest, that design actually forms into a scripture which says, _'Traveling warrior, to gain that which you desire, it takes more than the strength you possess. In the end, to gain that which you seek, it all comes down to a battle. Who will win the war? Be warned though, traveler, death awaits all who betray their true selves. Which is stronger? Desire or Heart? The answer will be your salvation_. _'_ "

"While that sounds interesting, what does it have to do with us?" Mazart demanded.

"Well, it seems this is a dangerous dungeon quest that will manipulate your feelings of greed and desire for the weapon. The first time I touched the door, I was blasted with this very dark shadow. I didn't realize it until Redwing and Ridwig killed me, but I was swallowed up by that darkness which intensified my greed for the weapon I was told about." Kirito explained quickly. His words alone seemed to surprise the players. He couldn't blame them. He never expected for a quest to appear that would alter his greed for a weapon so much. "It was unlucky for Ridwig to meet me outside the dungeon yesterday and then for me to meet Siren and Redwing. Because I was swallowed by that darkness, I decided to use both of your guilds to conquer the quest because I thought I needed to have a battle in here to call forth the weapon."

"That explains why you manipulated us and brought us here, but how did it cause us to battle?" Siren asked.

"Um, when I spoke to the soldier NPC, he spoke of how his comrades were more than eager to kill one another as well." Kirito replied. "I think it has to do with this room. While I am the one doing the quest, I did bring you here and the dark greed surrounding this room must have affected you guys as well. You may not know of the quest, but this room seems to have an effect on the players, especially when the player who accepted the quest, ergo me, is here."

"So you're saying that we were manipulated by your greed to battle it out here?" Redwing asked.

Kirito nodded quickly. "But that was the test. The scripture asks which is stronger. The heart or the desire? The quest manipulates your desire for the weapon and makes it stronger. The point here is to fight against that desire and follow your heart. I truly never wanted you guys to fight and slaughter each other so when I jump in between Redwing and Ridwig to stop them, I proved myself and the sword was called forth." He was certainly surprised after he was revived in the Chamber of Resurrection to see a notification window pop up telling him that he passed the test. That was part of the reason he rushed back to this room. He needed to see if the weapon had appeared.

"Geez," Ridwig rubbed his temple, feeling a headache forming with an added portion of some agitation over this whole situation. "You know, if it wasn't for the fact that I did feel an intense hatred when trying to kill Redwing and for the sword appearing, I wouldn't even believe you right now, Kirito."

"So…we're good?" Kirito asked.

"NO!" Redwing and Ridwig screamed as they shoved Siren out of the way and got in Kirito's face.

"You basically stole 33,000 col from me!" They both yelled.

"Eh…" Kirito chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "It was the effects of the quest?"

"The hell it was!" Redwing snarled.

"DO not try to blame that part on the quest." Ridwig growled as he grabbed Kirito by his jacket and roughly shook him. "That part was just you having spent too much time with Argo."

"Well…" Kirito looked upwards towards the right to avoid eye contact with Ridwig.

"Tch," Ridwig released Kirito. "Go get your damn sword and complete the quest before something else happens. I'd rather the guild war not continue."

Kirito looked from Ridwig to Redwing to their guilds. "…You guys are mad."

"Who in their right mind would not be mad?!" Siren retorted while his hand that was holding his sword twitched ever so slightly with the desire to stab Kirito. "The quest may have been affecting your avatar, but it was still your manipulation that led us here when we wanted to fight the boss. Do you even truly know where the boss is?"

"Eh, yeah, I know where it is." Kirito replied as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I mean, I can still lead you guys there if you really want to go, but…" He trailed off and looked around at the two guilds. Each guild was around halfway wiped out. "With the members you have left, neither guild could do it alone at this point. You guys really need to regroup and recover."

With that said, Kirito pushed through the guilds and made his way over to the pedestal where the sword was trapped. He looked down at the red hilt and wrapped his hands around it.

"Hmph, of course it doesn't shock him." Redwing grumbled.

"Well, it's his quest. You only got shocked because you interfered in it." Ridwig pointed out with a smirk.

Redwing scoffed. "Like you didn't want to go up there and get the sword as well."

"I learned from your mistake." Ridwig retorted.

Kirito pulled at the sword and while it was a bit difficult to extract from the stone, he met no other resistance that tried to keep him from retrieving the sword. He pushed his feet into the floor to steady himself as he pulled with all the strength he had to release the sword from its prison.

He felt the sword start to shift in the stone and little by little, it came farther and farther out until finally the tip of the sword broke free and Kirito was taking a step back to regain his balance.

Kirito whistled as he lowered the blood red blade of the sword. It was definitely unique. He had never seen a red sword in the game before. It made him wonder if it had any special properties.

"Kirito."

Looking over his shoulder at Redwing, Kirito raised a brow. "Yeah?"

"Ridwig and I decided." Redwing said as he motioned to the other guild leader. "You can keep the money we gave you…"

"I wasn't even planning to give it back." Kirito replied.

Siren twitched in anger. That was guild money. That little brat really had some nerve to keep all that col after he tricked them.

"Even though you don't deserve it." Mazart muttered as he and Siren shared a look. If even of them were the guild leaders, they would have surely acted more rashly against Kirito over this.

"But," Redwing continued as if Kirito and Mazart did not just interrupt him. "You have to lead us to the boss room."

Kirito raised a brow. "Oh, now you want to conquer the boss together?" He shrugged. "Well, I guess it is difficult for only one of your guilds to do it now that you know each other's plans. But…" He turned back around to look at them all with frowns. "Are you sure you want to? You guys just had a battle with each other. Are you really capable, item, equipment, and health wise, to go on a boss raid right now?"

"Don't worry about that." Ridwig replied with a grin. "We'll in good enough shape to tackle the boss. Besides, you'll be helping and seeing as how you weren't involved in the fight and only got killed, you're good as new."

Kirito sighed. "Yeah, goodie." He muttered before remembering something. "Oh, right, Siren, do you still have that knife that hit your shoulder earlier?"

Siren raised a brow, but nodded. "Yeah, I have it."

"Cool, can I have it back?" Kirito asked as he held out a hand.

Siren stared blankly at Kirito for a moment before his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "You." He hissed. "You're the one who hit me with this?!" He lifted up the knife he was hit with earlier.

"Well…" Kirito sweat dropped a bit. "I had to get a battle started…"

Siren dropped the knife in favor of drawing his sword.

"Uh…is that thing still covered in poison?" Kirito asked.

"Let's find out." Siren growled as he charged at Kirito, who's eyes widened and he jumped out of the way of the attack.

"Violence is not the answer!" Kirito shouted in protest. "Didn't we just learn this lesson?" He ducked under another sword swing and prayed his thanks that Siren wasn't using any sword skills. It meant that he didn't really want to kill him, right? Right? Oh, please let him be right about that. "Redwing! Call off your dog before he murders me!"

Kirito seriously considered drawing his sword, but he was sure that wouldn't go down well after everything that happened so instead he shot a quick glance at Redwing before he was dodging a sword that almost sliced his chest. To his annoyance, the guild leaders were watching in amusement. Seriously, why did he stop them from slaughtering each other earlier?

 ***Beater***

"Hahahahaha!"

Kazuto's brow twitched in annoyance as he leaned his chin in his upturned palm. "Seriously, I don't think it is funny at all." He muttered as he stared at his godfather. "I seriously feared for my life then."

"You sure know how to anger other players, don't you?" Kayaba asked with a smirk.

"They make it too easy at times." Kazuto replied with a shrug. "And that whole situation was your fault for creating a dungeon quest like that! I didn't think it was possible to manipulate emotions like that."

Kayaba nodded as he grew serious. "It is dangerous so there are limits to what I allow the Nervegear and Cardinal system to do. If the level of control over a player's emotions is too high, it will be like it is controlling you. What that quest did was just altered the greed you had for that sword. When you received the quest and heard about the weapon, didn't you desire it for yourself just a little bit?"

"Yes," Kazuto nodded. "I thought it would be great if I got it and it became the reward for the quest if it was as good as the NPC was making it out to be."

"The moment you thought that is when you fell prey to the quest." Kayaba replied before he paused to take a sip of his coffee. "The Cardinal became aware of the quest being activated by a player and raised your level of greed by hitting you with that shadow when you touched the door. What happened when that occurred?"

Kazuto's eyes narrowed in thought. "I wasn't able to move and then I blacked out for a small period of time. It was at that point, I left the dungeon and met the two guilds that I ended up manipulating."

"Hmm, I see." Kayaba replied intrigued. They had tested this function out, but it was better to learn about it from someone who didn't know about the function. "It didn't add or change emotions. The only thing it is programmed to do in a quest like that is to alter how much of an emotion you are feeling. It made you feel more greed and lowered your sense of morality."

"I noticed. Throughout the time I had the quest, I kept fighting against my morals and the greed I was feeling seemed so much more important." Kazuto replied with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "In fact, if I didn't logout the night before, I think I would have gone the wrong route and let the guilds slaughter each other."

Kayaba raised a brow in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Kazuto looked down at his tea as he swished it around in the cup a bit. "Well, when I was logged out, my emotions righted themselves and I could think clearly once again. If I had stayed logged in until I finished the quest, I would have stayed lost in my greed. But since the system can't affect my emotions IRL, I was able to momentarily recover my morals until I logged back in."

"That makes sense. Since I don't want to control anyone, I would never make an advanced version to control or change emotions of a person. That is taking it too far." Kayaba replied.

"Well, that's a good thing to know." Kazuto said with a smile. "To think emotions can be controlled or changed…it is a scary thought."

 **A/N: Since a lot of sword skills for swords and all different types of weapons aren't known, I am going to create some of my own as needed. Like the dagger skills «flash star» and «spike» that Ridwig used. Don't expect much from the names of them. That is probably the hardest part for me in created sword skills. The names are so difficult to come up with…**


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online**

 **A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed!**

 **The Path of a Beater**

 **Chapter 5**

"Will you be coming to Suguha's tournament tomorrow?"

At his mother's voice penetrating his concentration, Kazuto looked up from the magazine he was reading. "Tomorrow?" He repeated with a frown before glancing back at the article he was reading about the launch of SAO tomorrow. "I can't tomorrow."

Midori looked at her son as she gave a weary sigh. "I would like you two to repair your relationship, Kazuto. You not being my real son doesn't change the fact that you are family. Why do you have to push your sister away like this?"

Instead of replying, Kazuto kept his eyes locked on the article about the game releasing for its official debut tomorrow. After two months of waiting, he was finally going to get to dive back into the game. It felt like an eternity had passed.

"I thought when that beta test ended, I could get you to come to some of her matches." Midori replied tiredly.

Kazuto nodded. He figured she was trying to help that way. He did notice that she was asking him to go to her matches and tournaments more often in the past couple of months. Though not once did he ever go. There was always a reason he claimed he couldn't go. He had to study for a test. He had a prior arrangement to meet his godfather for the day. He didn't feel well. All were legitimate reasons as to why he couldn't go, in his opinion at least.

"So, what are you doing tomorrow that you can't come to her match this time, Kazuto?" Midori demanded, ready to argue her son's excuse once more. Though, she knew from the past times this has happened, that arguing his excuse would do nothing. She couldn't force her son to go to his sister's match. That would just make things between the two worse.

"It's SAO's official launch tomorrow." Kazuto replied as if it explained it all, and having grown up as a gamer, Midori found she understood. The official release of a game was not something to miss, especially when only a limited amount of games were sold for the game's debut.

Though, she understood the hype about a game like this being released, Midori was not going to back down. "Kazuto, all you do is play games or read MMO weekly. You don't have any friends and you never go out unless it is for school or to meet Akihiko. You are making yourself into a social recluse. There is more to life than games."

Kazuto looked up from his magazine again, raising a brow. "I'm alright with being a social recluse. Though with technology like Nervegear where I dive into the game, I get enough social interaction with the other players."

"You are going to call seeing someone in an avatar with a username social interaction?" Midori asked.

"Sure, we are talking with each other. Who cares about it not being our real appearances or names?" Kazuto shrugged.

Midori sighed and rubbed her eyes. "But all you discuss is the game. I know how MMOs work, Kazuto. Only the game is discussed. Any information about the real world isn't talked about in games for safety reasons and because the players are there for the game, not your life story."

"Speaking with players and making transactions or plans for raids or just trading information is still social interaction." Kazuto argued. "And it's the type of interaction that I am fine with."

"But there is more to life than that." Midori retorted, frowning at her son. "You used to love kendo, Kazuto. I know learning the truth about you not being my real son affected you, but you didn't have to withdraw yourself from everything and everyone because of that."

The now fourteen year old teen couldn't bring himself to look at his aunt and admit that he was hiding inside because he didn't want to face the truth of the world. Just having Midori tell him the truth of how his parents died hurt. He didn't want to go any deeper into the truth than that because he was scared. He was scared of what he would find out. He was scared that if he learned any more of the truth, it would send him farther away from his family because he would feel that he didn't belong. Because he wasn't their true son, he felt that he was an imperfection in this family.

"I told you how my sister and Hiroki died and nothing changed, Kazuto." Midori said, guessing her son's thought process. She moved to sit by him and leaned on his shoulder to look down at what he was reading. "We are still your family." Leaning down, she kissed her son's head. "We are still a family, but you are distancing yourself from us by feeling you don't belong. It is hurting us and you."

When Kazuto didn't reply, Midori sighed again, dropping her forehead to her son's hair. "Think about it this way, Kazuto. Akihiko isn't blood related to you, but when you were a kid, you called him Aki-nii-san. You loved him like he was real family. Blood doesn't make a family. It is the love and care and worry you have for each other that builds a family."

A frown found its way onto Kazuto's face as he thought about that. Without even thinking about it, he accepted Akihiko back into his life a few months ago despite him having a seven year MIA status. If he could do that, why couldn't he be friends with Suguha and be the older brother he was supposed to be? There was no reason for him to hurt Suguha by pushing her away just because he was actually an orphan that Midori accepted into her family. All he was doing was pushing his sister away because he didn't want to face the truth. It was what Akihiko did with him, but he regretted it enough to want to come back into his life.

"…Alright." Kazuto relented with the word burning his tongue. He could do this. "What time is her match tomorrow?"

Eyes lighting up in joy, Midori quickly explained the location of the tournament and that it started at four. "I'm going straight from work so you'll have to get there yourself, Kazuto."

"Four, huh?" Kazuto mumbled to himself. Well, he could at least get a few hours of SAO in before he had to go to Suguha's tournament. He could do this. He could face her at her tournament. If Akihiko could face him after seven years, he could face his sister and try to repair the damage he created.

 ***Beater***

Glancing at the clock, Kazuto grinned in anticipation. Only a few more minutes until the official launch of SAO. After two months of not being able to see that world, he couldn't wait until he could finally return.

"Kazuto! I'm heading out now!"

At his sister's voice, Kazuto looked away from the MMO stream he was watching to look ott his bedroom door. He listened to his sister run down the stairs before he stood up and leaned on his bed to look out his window to watch Suguha jogging away from the house. The tournament didn't start for three hours so he wasn't sure why she was leaving now. Perhaps she wanted to mentally prepare and relax?

Deciding not to put much thought into it, Kazuto turned back to his computer and closed the stream he was watching before preparing his game and Nervegear. He pulled his helmet on and stared at the time in the corner which read 12:59 and found himself smirking. As soon as that time changed to 1, he said, "Link Start."

A barrage of colors assaulted Kazuto's eyes before the multiple checks for touch, hearing, taste, sight, and smell were made. They were all found to be okay so a screen popped for Japanese to be his chosen language. After that was his login where he entered his username and password. He chose to use his avatar from the beta test. All the skills would be reset to zero, but he didn't want to waste time remaking his avatar.

A moment later, Kirito was opening his eyes in the Town of Beginnings. He looked around with a smirk. "I'm back." He whispered.

Kirito soon felt very alive and was hit with a sense of joy that he had been missing the past two months when he started to run through the streets of the Town of Beginnings. He only had about two hours before he had to logoff and get to Suguha's tournament. It was at this moment that he was really starting to regret promising his mom he would go. Why did he have to say he would go on the day of SAO's launch? He should have waited until the next tournament or match Suguha had.

The former beta tester turned down an alley when he heard someone shout, "Hey! You!"

Confused, Kirito looked around. Was that directed at him? When he looked over his shoulder and saw another player running after him, he guessed it was for him and turned to face him fully. "What's up?" He asked, watching with a bit of amusement as the player took a few deep breathes.

"You act like you know you way around here. You were in the beta test, weren't you?" The player asked.

Kirito blinked, momentarily shocked. This player was obviously sharp if he was able to tell he was a beta tester just from the way he moved and knew where he was going. No one else seemed to realize that. "Uh, yeah." He replied, still a bit surprised at this turn of events.

"Cool," The player rose up to his full height and took a step towards Kirito. "You see, today is my first day and I'm a bit lost. Do you think you could give me some pointers about the lower floors?" He clapped a hand on Kirito's shoulder, leaving the former beta tester a bit uncomfortable at the close proximity. Oh, god, this player wasn't going to turn out like Ridwig where Kirito wanted to attempt to kill him at least once a week, was he?

"Yeah, I don't know if that's–" Kirito started to say, but was cut off when the other player clapped his hands in front of him in a begging manner.

"Please, I'm begging you. By the way, my name is Klein." Klein said as he pointed at himself with a grin. "It's nice to meet you."

For a moment, Kirito stared before he sighed and nodded. "Alright. The name is Kirito."

And that was how Kirito found himself standing in a field with a smirk as he watched Klein get knocked back by a frenzy boar, the weakest enemy in the game. As Klein curled up on himself, holding his nuts, Kirito was fighting the urge to either laugh or sigh in annoyance.

"Really, Klein?" Kirito said, planting his hands on his hips as he stared down at the other player. "You can't feel any pain here."

Klein blinked and lifted his head in surprise. "Ah, you're right."

Now Kirito did find himself sighing in annoyance. Klein was perspective in realizing he was a beta tester, but that had to have been a fluke. One hell of a fluke.

"Sorry, habit."

Kirito raised a brow. Habit? Just how many times did he get hit there? "Remember what I said. Your first move is the most important."

"That's easy for you to say." Klein replied, glaring at the boar that was beating him. "But he won't stand still."

"Would you stand still if someone was attacking you?" Kirito retorted as he picked up a rock and tossed it in his hand a few times. "Listen now, Klein. Your initial motion has to be right so the system can pick up the skill you are about to use." He pulled his arm back to activate his skill, which caused his rock to glow red. "And as soon as you do, a sword skill is activated." His eyes narrowed in on the boar as he released his rock and it slammed into the boar's butt. "The system guarantees you'll always hit your target."

Klein looked down at his curved sword. "Initial motion, huh."

Hearing the question in his tone, Kirito smiled and drew his sword out as he locked eyes with the boar that was getting ready to charge at him. "An easier way to look at it," He paused as he dodged around the boar. The boar turned back around and charged at him again, but this time Kirito used the flat side of his sword to keep the boar's head down. "Right after you start your move, wait for a moment. You will then feel the skill start to activate and when you do, drive it home!"

Klein looked off to the side with a thoughtful frown. "Drive it home?" He blinked in surprise as it hit him and he fell into a stance, drawing his sword back onto his shoulder for his initial motion.

When Kirito notice his sword start to glow orange, he smiled and released the hold he had on the boar. The boar flung itself onto it hind legs from this and Kirito stole this moment to slam his foot into the boar's back to send it in the direction of Klein.

Klein let the skill go as he charged forward and slashed through the boar, resulting in its HP dropping down to zero and it bursting into polygons shards. A result window popped up in front of Klein, but he barely noticed it as he threw his arms into the air as he cheered loudly.

"Congratulation." Kirito said as he and Klein high fived each other. Having been in the same spot as Klein at one point, Kirito couldn't help but smile a bit. Just remembering his first day in SAO was a grand memory he never wanted to let go of. It was amazing to fight enemies while being able to move and to run through the fields. MMORPGs were great for the quests and raids, but to actual be able to swing a sword in virtual reality to take out an enemy, it was exhilarating. "That was nice." Kirito returned his sword to his sheath before looking back at Klein. "But that boar is about as weak as slimes in other games."

"Holy crap," Klein replied, eyes wide in surprise. "I thought it was a midlevel boss!"

Kirito chuckled. "As if." He said as he looked out at the field as some boars respawned. When he heard the sound of a sword skill, he looked back at Klein to see him getting some practice in with them. "Feels great, doesn't it? To be able to move your body while you fight."

Klein grinned at him. "I'll say. This is amazing." He lunged forward with his sword once more. "So, these skills, there's a ton of them. Like blacksmithing and stuff?" He asked as he made another lunge.

"Yeah," Kirito replied. "There is an unlimited number of them. Well, except for magic."

Klein flipped his blade and rested it on his shoulder again to activate his sword skill. "A RPG without magic? That is a risky move." As he finished speaking, he flew forward as he activated the sword skill.

"It's fun, isn't it?" Kirito asked, which just made Klein grin at him in reply. "Think you're ready to get some more training in?"

Klein nodded. "Hell yeah. Teach me all you can, man!"

Before either of them realized it, they had spent hours training together. Klein was having a great time learning the ropes of the game and getting to move while he fought while Kirito was just breathing in the familiarity of this world and trying to take it all in again. Oh, how he has missed this world.

And thus, he never realized it was way after four. He had completely forgotten his promise to come to his sister's tournament today.  
 ***Beater***

Midori glared at her phone to see it was ten minutes after four. Looking back up, she frowned as her eyes scanned the audience. Kazuto had promised to meet her out front at four, but when he didn't show up, she went inside to see if he had come in here. But she didn't see her son anywhere.

Though she had quite a good guess as to where he was. Despite promising to come here, she was willing to bet anything that he lost track of time and completely forgot so he was still playing SAO. That was just like her son to lose himself completely in his games that he forgot about his obligations IRL. She had actually had a guess this was coming so she was happy she didn't tell Suguha that her brother promised to come here. She didn't need to deal with the disappointment of Kazuto breaking his promise. But when she got home, she was yanking his Nervegear off of him and giving him a nice, long lecture about breaking promises.

For the time being though, she was going to concentrate on watching her daughter in the tournament. If she managed to win the prefectural, she could then compete in the regionals tournament and work her way towards the nationals. Her daughter has been working hard, but she wasn't sure if she was quite at the level to make it to the nationals. But Suguha would surely give her opponents a fighting chance.

But it wasn't long until she was distracted by her phone buzzing and she had to look away from her daughter's spar. She pulled her phone out and out of the corner of her eye, she saw many others pulling their phones out. While it wasn't odd for people to have their phones out, for everyone to pull their phone out at the same time and during the tournament, it was weird. Looking down at her phone, she saw it was an emergency newsfeed from a news network. Whenever an emergency was happening, they would send out an alert to anyone signed up.

She planned to give it only a quick glance and return to it after the tournament, but the words Sword Art Online, Nervegear, and 10,000 players trapped all caught her eye. Quickly, she went to the website and saw a video posted. Not caring if it disturbed someone, she played the video.

Immediately, Akihiko appeared on her screen.

"For those of you who do not know, my name is Akihiko Kayaba, the designer of Nervegear and the lead game developer of Sword Art Online." Kayaba spoke to the viewers. "As of now, 10,000 players have logged onto Sword Art Online. So at this time, I will tell you of a feature of the game that has been kept under tight lock. None of the players will be able to logout of SAO until the game has been cleared."

Midori felt her mind going blank. Unable to logout? Was that possible? There were many times she ripped Kazuto's Nervegear off and he was just fine. Couldn't she just do that? There was no way he was trapped in a game.

"This is not a defect. It is the way the game was designed to be. Attempting to remove the Nervegear from a player will result in a transmitter inside it discharging a microwave signal that will fry the player's brain, killing them instantly. Cutting the power from the Nervegear will not help release the player because of the internal battery it has. The only way for the players to be logged out from Sword Art Online is for the game to be cleared. Though dying just once in the game will cause their avatar to be deleted forever and at the same time, the Nervegear will fry their brain. You have been warned. The players cannot be freed. It is now up to them to fight and live as they battle for their freedom."

The screen went dark as the video ended and Midori found herself falling back against the wall in horror. Her son was trapped in Sword Art Online. Her son was trapped in a game that would kill him. If the game wasn't cleared, her son would be trapped forever or he would be killed by an enemy. The game's creator, Kazuto's own godfather, was the one who trapped him in this death game.

That….that just couldn't be true. Akihiko loved his only godson. He wouldn't trap him in a game that could kill him. This had to be some type of joke, a prank. There was no way this could be real.

But, looking up and seeing the pale faces of all those around her and the few that screamed in horror and dropped their phones, she saw it couldn't be a prank. If it was, it was the cruelest prank imaginable to cause this kind of horror to parents and siblings. Their babies were trapped in a game, but why? If this was the truth, why did Akihiko trap all of these players in a game? It just didn't make any sense.

Why would Akihiko take her baby from her? When Kazuto's parents died, they promised to keep Kazuto safe so they wouldn't lose him as well. Granted, Akihiko wasn't around until a few months ago, but she thought he was now working good on that promise. But that seemed to be a false belief if he really trapped all those players in a game. He knew Kazuto would be diving into the game today. How could he do this to his own godson? How could he put him in this kind of danger?

A part of her just wanted to rush home and ripped Kazuto's Nervegear off and scream that it wasn't true and that her son was fine. But another part of her screamed to not do it. This was Akihiko Kayaba. She knew how smart he was with how her son gushed about him and his Nervegear design and SAO. She knew how smart he was because she met him multiple times through her sister and her husband. He was smart enough to create the Nervegear to fry the user's brain. For that reason alone, she was too scared to even risk pulling the NerveGear off her son in the event that Kayaba wasn't lying and it did end up killing him. She couldn't face herself if she pulled it off and killed him. Eight years ago, her sister and her husband were killed by a drunk driver because she suggested they go out on a date that night. Despite what Kazuto said, she still blamed herself for that, even if Kazuto forgave her. For that reason, she was too scared to pull the Nervegear off of her son. She couldn't bear to see it kill him. She didn't want to lose anyone else.

Why did this have to be happening? Kazuto promised to work on repairing his relationship with his sister. He couldn't do that trapped in a game that might kill him.

How long would it take for the game to be cleared? Would it be cleared?

Would she ever get to see her son again?

She looked up to see her daughter grinning as she won the match. Suguha looked around for her and when her eyes landed on her mother, the grin slipped away at her distressed look.

Any chance Suguha had of winning the tournament and going to regionals was thrown away when she made her way over to her mother and learned that her brother was trapped in SAO. Despite the fact that she couldn't do anything, Suguha threw her other matches by running out of there with her mom to get home.

She wouldn't be able to concentrate and win them anyway.

Her brother, who despite being so cold to her the last few years, was still someone she loved dearly. And now he was gone from her life. Mentally at least. For years, she tried to repair their relationship, despite not knowing why it broke. It never worked, but she was stubborn and she never gave up.

But now he was trapped and there was nothing she could do to fix that and she couldn't talk to him anymore. He was just mentally locked away in a virtual world that could kill him.

Why? Why did he have to dive into those stupid games all the time?

 ***SAO***

"Thanks for today, Kirito." Klein said, glancing over to where Kirito was lounging on the ground, staring at the evening sky.

Kirito turned his head to look at the other player. "It wasn't a problem, Klein."

Klein gave him an easy grin. "It's been fun, but I have a pre-ordered pizza coming at 5:30 so I should be logging out. But hey, I'll be getting back on later to play with some friends if you want to meet up?"

At those words, Kirito looked away, a bit uneasy. It wasn't that he had a problem with interacting with other players. He did it quite a bit in the beta test, but of course they always approached him first and it was just for jobs or to drive him crazy (Redwing and Ridwig). If they weren't paying him for a job, he found himself uncomfortable around a group of new people. It took time for him to get used to people…

His mom was probably right about him being a horrible social recluse.

"Hey, it's alright. You don't have to if you don't want to." Klein said, drawing Kirito's attention back to him.

Seeing the easygoing smile, Kirito relaxed a bit. "Yeah, maybe another time, Klein."

Klein nodded and opened his menu to scroll down to the logout button which is where he paused and scratched his head. "So, Kirito, stupid question, but how do I logout?"

Blinking, Kirito pushed himself up to a sitting position and stared blankly at Klein. "Seriously, Klein? It is at the bottom of your main menu."

"That's where I am, but I don't see it."

Kirito swiped his own menu open and paused when he saw the logout button was a faded gray color. "You're right. It really isn't there." Why wouldn't it be there? There was no problem with logging on and off in the beta, at least not like this. So what could it be? A bug was a potential problem. "Well, it is possible for it to just be a bug. Try contacting the Game Master."

"Well, I've been trying, but he's not answering." Klein replied, glaring at his menu as if it was at fault for him about to miss his pizza. "What about another way to logout? Like pulling the Nervegear off." As he said that, he attempted to pull the helmet off.

"Impossible." Kirito deadpanned. "The Nervegear blocks the movement commands from the brain to the body so your body will not move around while you play. Your best choice will be to have someone IRL pull your Nervegear off for you."

Klein sighed. "Well, I live alone. What about you?"

Kirito frowned. "I have a mom and a sister–Oh, SHIT!" He screamed, smacking his forehead. "The tournament! My mom is going to kill me!"

It seemed Klein was oblivious to Kirito's sudden despair. "Sister?" He shouted as he lunged at his new friend and shook his shoulders. "What is she like? What does she like to do?"

At Klein's interest in his little sister, Kirito felt an annoyed protective feeling arise in him which ended with him slamming a foot in the older player's crotch. As his friend rolled around on the ground as if he could feel pain, Kirito turned away and frowned to himself. "Don't you think this is weird?"

"Yeah, but it's just a bug." Klein replied once he remembered that he couldn't feel pain in a virtual world.

"No," Kirito shook his head. "It's not just a bug." His eyes narrowed as he thought about all the times he spoke with Akihiko. There is no way he would have let a bug like this through. He was so thorough in his work on this game. "Besides, if we can't log out, it will cause serious problems for the game."

Klein stared at his new friend before sighing as he stood up and dusted himself off. "I guess you're right."

"Do the developers even know yet?" Kirito wondered out loud.

"If they do, it's not from me." Klein said as he looked at his menu again. "I can't get through to anyone."

"Maybe they are overloaded from other players." Kirito mused. "But they should still be able to shut down the server and force a logout for everyone."

Before Klein could reply, a bell started chiming in the distance, surprising both players enough for them to turn to look at it. It was only a few seconds later when both of them were engulfed in a blinding blue light. When the light died away, Kirito and Klein found themselves back in the Town of Beginnings.

Kirito looked around in shock as he watched other players arrive in the center by the same means.

"A forced teleportation? But why?" Kirito mused with a frown.

The bell finally stopped ringing as all players were teleported into the town.

"What is that?"

Hearing the question, Kirito stopped looking around and instead focused his gaze towards the sky to see a red hexagon flashing there with the word 'warning' in the center of it.

"This doesn't look good." Kirito said.

His statement was proven correct when multiple hexagons quickly spread across the sky until the whole sky was filled with them. In-between the cracks of the hexagon, a blood like substance oozed out into a pile in the sky that shifted into the shape of a massive hooded figured.

"What the hell is that?" Klein asked shocked.

"Is that the Game Master?"

"Why doesn't he have a face?"

"Is this an event?"

"I'm scared!"

"Don't worry. It's just part of the opening ceremony."

While the other players were asking a multitude of questions that penetrated his ears, Kirito just stared up at this imposing figure. Kayaba never mentioned a special opening event to him. He could easily explain that away as Kayaba just wanted to surprise him with a special event, but that didn't explain the lack of a logout button though. Not to mention, if there was going to be a special event, the Game Master would have sent out a notice so the players could stay logged in to see it if they wanted to.

"Attention, players," The figure said as it spread its arms out. "I welcome you to my world."

"My world?" Kirito repeated to himself, a frown setting in. By those words alone Kirito could already determine who was speaking. If this game was anyone's world, it was Kayaba's since it was his dream to create it.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world. I am sure most of you have already noticed an item missing from your main menu. The logout button." Kayaba continued as he swiped his hand down to open his menu so he could see the empty slot. "Let me assure you. This is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

"He's kidding, right?" Klein asked.

Kirito didn't bother to reply as he was too busy staring in horror at the towering figure in the sky. Was Kayaba saying he wasn't going to let them logout of the game? The idea was pretty ridiculous though. What would even be the purpose of doing something like that?

"You cannot log yourselves out of SAO, and no one from the outside will be able to shutdown or remove the NerveGear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life." Kayaba explained, and with each word he said, the players started to shift around as they got anxious. He couldn't be serious, right? This was just some elaborate joke for the first day of the game, right?

"What are you talking about?"

"What bullshit!"

"Let's get out of here."

Kirito turned his head to the side to watch two players attempt to leave, but hit an invisible barrier in the process.

"I can't get out!"

Klein turned his head to look at his new friend. "Are you listening to this? He's–" The red head cut himself off when he saw the look of horror in Kirito's eyes as they stared at Kayaba. "What's wrong? He's just lying!"

Kirito shook his head slowly. "The transmitter and headgear work just like microwaves. If the safety is disabled, it could fry your brain." But why would anyone disable the safety and leave the players in danger like that?

"But the power could just be cut–"

"No, it won't work." Kirito cut his friend out. "The NerveGear's got an internal battery."

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted to remove the NerveGear. A very unfortunate decision as it has resulted in two hundred thirteen deaths. They've been deleted from Aincrad and the real world."

Kirito's eyes sharpened onto his godfather. Was he seriously saying that? That was over two hundred lives, people with family and friends left behind! It shouldn't be taken so lightly. Life was a precious, and all those lives were suddenly cut short because of this crazy twist in something that was just supposed to be a game!

"This can't be real!" Klein muttered in disbelief as he shook his head.

Windows began to pop up all around Kayaba that was displaying news from the real world. "As you can see, international media has around the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It's important you remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the server forever and the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

Kirito gasped as he recalled the beta test. How many times did he die? How many times did he player kill? It was just a game. There was never any danger that they had to face and they were just always having fun. But if any of that happened now, was it truly the end for them? If he tried to kill Ridwig again, would he actually kill him in real alive?

His hands clenched into fists as he glared at the game. This couldn't be real. He had to be dreaming right now. There was no plausible reason for why his godfather would trap 10,000 players inside of a game.

"There is only one way for a player to escape now. You must clear the game." Kayaba said as he hit a button on his menu to display a holographic image of Aincrad. "Right now you are gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may move to the next floor. If you defeat the boss on floor 100, you will clear the game."

"Why should we believe anything you're saying?"

"That's impossible. We can't clear all 100 floors." Klein said. He shot a glance at Kirito before looking back up at Kayaba. "Even the beta testers never made it that high."

"Last, but not least, I've placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

Kirito immediately swiped open his menu and went to his item storage to see a mirror in his storage. Confused about such a strange item, Kirito selected it and a moment later, the mirror fell into his hand, allowing him to stare at his reflection.

A few second later, Kirito felt himself engulfed in a bluish-white light as he heard a surprise scream come from Klein.

It didn't last long though.

"Are you okay, Kirito?"

Hearing Klein's voice, Kirito turned to face him, only to find himself getting confused at seeing the person before him. He wore the same clothes as Klein, but he looked older with a scruffy beard and short, spiky red hair. "Who are you?"

"I'm me. Who are you?" Klein asked.

Kirito lifted his mirror, and about had a heart attack when he saw his real life face staring back at him. "No, no," Kirito mumbled as he pulled at his cheek and saw his reflection do the same. Why was he seeing himself?! He looked back at Klein with a grimace. "Klein?"

"Is that you, Kirito?" Klein asked at the same time. "How can this…."

"The scan," Kirito replied instantly. "There's a high destiny signal device inside the NerveGear rig. It can see what my face looks like, but how does it know my height and body type?"

"When you first put the NerveGear on, it had you do this calibration thing." Klein said as he tapped his arms. "It asked you to touch your body all over like this."

Kirito blinked as he looked at the ground. That was right. Kirito got his NerveGear a lot sooner when all it had to it were simple puzzle games as the start of diving into games. It wasn't until the announcement of Sword Art Online that the NerveGear started to get a lot of attention, so it was likely Klein just recently got his NerveGear and did his calibration not that long ago.

"You're right. That's how it got our physical data." Kirito replied.

Klein rubbed his head. "This is….but what the hell is the point? Why would anyone do this to us?"

Kirito bit his bottom lip. That was a very important question. He pointed towards his godfather. "I think he's about to tell us."

"Right now, you're probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal is quite simple. The reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my own design."

At those words, Kirito glared at Kayaba. Control this world? Kayaba could have controlled this world without trapping the players in it. No, he would not believe his godfather would do something this dangerous for such an egotistical reason. He wouldn't, couldn't, believe he would be so callous about lives for such a shallow reason. There had to be more to this than that.

"As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck." With those final words, Kayaba's cloaked figure began to glitch out as smoke wafted from the figure as it vanished.

When he was completely gone, the red sky disappeared to be replaced by the sunset.

With Kayaba gone, silence descended over the town square as the players stared at the empty spot where Kayaba just was. But the silence only lasted a few seconds before the reality of what he had told them all truly set in.

With that reality setting in came the chaos that would typically follow. A loud eruption of noise filled the square as players screamed in fear while others demanded loudly to be let out.

In the midst of it all, Kirito found himself staring down at his hands. These were his hands. The hands that he saw every day in the real world. They didn't belong here. This was supposed to be his escape from reality, the place he came to when he didn't want to face the truths about his family. It was never actually supposed to become his new reality. So why did it become that? Why was he seeing his real body's appearance here?

" _Are you ready for the official launch?"_

 _Hearing the familiar voice, Kazuto looked up from his drink to see his godfather standing by his table in the café they usually met at. A huge grin split across his face as his eyes lit up in excitement. "Of course I am. I have missed that world so much since the beta ended." He replied as Kayaba sat down across from him. "I can't wait to play the game again and see what the other floors are like."_

" _I am sure you will love the world, but don't just do quests. Remember to explore and experience the world to the fullest extent." Kayaba said with a smile. "I want the players to know the feeling of being completely submerged in a whole new world. It's not just about being the strongest. This world was created for them to make it a second home."_

" _A second home?" Kazuto echoed. "Well, I guess I can see that." And he could. He wouldn't tell anyone, but he loved video games but what he really lived about the NerveGear was that he could jump into the game and escape his reality. It gave him a chance to pretend to be someone else for hours at a time so he didn't have to face his family who he didn't know how to behave around anymore. He could be the strongest mercenary of SAO, Kirito, whenever he jumped into the game. His alter ego was like his shield and protective from the hard truths of reality._

" _It's my word, something I spent years working on." Kayaba said wistfully, staring out the window at something that Kazuto couldn't see. "I want everyone to find something in this world and not just see it as another game."_

 _At those words, Kazuto smiled. "They will, because it's not just another game. It is the first game that allows us to dive completely into a new world and fight with our bodies. All the beta testers loved the experience. I am sure the newcomers will as well."_

Why? Sword Art Online was Kayaba's pride and joy so why would he soil the game he loved and worked so hard on by doing this? By making it into a death game?

Because there was no doubt in Kirito's mind that everything Kayaba just said was true. Kayaba was a genius. He built this game and designed the NerveGear. If he wanted to make it so the players would die in real life by dying in the game, he could do it.

Kirito's hands curled into fists at his side. But why? That was the only question he had in this whole situation. He felt betrayed, hurt, and terrified. He didn't want to die. Why would Kayaba do this? Why would he let his own godson dive into the game when he knew he was going to do this to 10,000 players? Why did Kayaba seek him out months ago to tell him he was his godfather just to betray him here? Why was he destroying his game's name like this?

Why?

Why?

 _ **Why?!**_

Through all the chaos of players screaming, it was a shattering sound that pierced Kirito's ears and brought him back to the reality of the situation. He whipped his head around to see a girl had dropped her mirror as she screamed and hugged herself, but that was all he saw before he turned back around and grabbed Klein's wrist. "Let's go." He whispered quickly before he started pulling his friend out of the town square before he could react.

He continued to pull his friend along until they were in an empty alley where all the noise from the town square wouldn't disturb them.

"Listen," Kirito looked around the alley to make sure it was completely empty before focusing his gaze on Klein. "I'm heading for the next village. I want you to come." He swiped opened his menu and navigated to his map of the first floor of Aincrad. "Everything Kayaba said just now is true. I truly believe we will die if our HP runs out so if we are to survive, we need to make ourselves as strong as possible. In an MMORPG, the money you could earn, the EXP, once the game starts up, there's only so much of that stuff to go around."

Kirito pointed at the flashing red dot that was the town they were currently in. "The fields around this town will be hunted clean soon." A path made of arrows drew onto his map as he got his route ready. "If we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting cash and points. Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid. Even if I'm level one, I can get there easy." He closed his map and looked up at his friend to see him looking unsure.

"Thanks," Klein replied slowly. "But the friends I mentioned earlier….we stood in line all night together just to get this game, and right now, they are back in the square. I can't just leave them here. They don't know how to play the game. I need to help them."

Hearing that, Kirito looked down as he bit his lip. At level one, he was risking enough for himself to get to the next village. With just Klein, he should be able to do it, but if they traveled in a group bigger than two, the risk of getting to the next village with everyone alive was much harder. In fact, doing it with them all at level one, he would have to say that they wouldn't all make it. Could he really risk their lives?

"Sorry, I can't ask someone I just met to risk his life for a bunch of strangers." Klein said, drawing Kirito's eyes back up to him in surprise.

Not once did Kirito think Klein would make the choice for him.

"Don't worry about me. Just get your ass to the next village." Klein pounded his fist on his chest right over his heart. "Thanks for teaching me earlier. I will use what you taught me to help my friends. Besides, the last game I played, I ran a guild so I know what I am doing."

"If you're sure," Kirito replied, still a bit hesitant but he did turn away from his friend. "If you're ever in a jam, message me and I'll come running. See you around, Klein."

Klein stared at his friend's despondent look before he had turned completely. The face that was so cheerful and having fun earlier looked so serious now. It was disheartening, but Klein would bet everything he owned that everyone looked like that right now. "Kirito!" He shouted before he realized what he was doing. When Kirito turned halfway around to look back at him, Klein faltered for a moment, unsure of what to say at first.

When Klein didn't say anything, Kirito started to move away again.

"Hey, Kirito," Klein said again, making the younger boy stopped again. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to say, but he just knew he didn't want them parting on these terms. "Uh…You look better like this." His words got the kid to turn around in surprise. "Way cooler than your avatar."

A half-amused smirked graced Kirito's face. "And that scruffy face fits you ten times better too."

When Kirito finished speaking, he turned back around once more while Klein smirked. There. He did his part. That last part of light teasing was a sense of familiarity that they both needed. It was the same type of teasing they did all day.

With that teasing out of the way, Klein turned and ran out of the alley before Kirito could possibly change his mind. He didn't want to accidentally force his friend to make a different choice. Kirito had to look out for himself in this dangerous game. He just knew that if it was Kirito he could and would survive.

Klein disappeared from the alley at the perfect time because after taking a few steps, Kirito stopped and turned back to his friend, but was surprised to see him gone already. Swallowing thickly, Kirito gritted his teeth and ran down the alley before any more doubts about making this choice could stop him.

Escaping the Town of Beginnings was easy as the streets were completely empty. It seemed that none of the other players had even left the town square yet. With no other players around, there was nothing to slow Kirito down as he left the town through the main gates and got on the path that would lead him to the next town.

" _Here you go, Kazuto."_

 _Kazuto smiled as he saw the official version of Sword Art Online slid across the table towards him. "Is it really alright if I don't pay for it?"_

" _Of course. I think, being the creator of it, I can sneak a game for my godson." Kayaba replied, sharing a conspirator's smirk with Kazuto. "Besides, being a beta tester, you were going to be able to get a game early anyway."_

" _It's too bad we can't keep our equipment and skills though." Kazuto said as he looked at the cover of the game. "On the other hand though, it will be fun to start the game anew."_

" _Will you play differently this time?"_

 _Blinking in confusion, Kazuto looked up with a frown. "What do you mean?"_

" _Will you join a guild?"_

 _Kazuto shook his head. "Nope. I am a solo player all the way. I love being a mercenary for hire."_

 _Kayaba chuckled. "Part of MMORPG is to interact with other players, Kazuto."_

" _I do interact with them." A smirk formed over Kazuto's lips. "Like when they have to pay me for the jobs they ask me to do."_

 _Kayaba just shook his head. "That's not exactly what I meant."_

Was that it? Was Kayaba trying to tell him to not play solo anymore? How long has his godfather been planning this death game? If he could disable the safety on the NerveGear, then he must have designed it that way years ago because this had always been his plan. But _**WHY?!**_

Focusing on the path in front of him, Kirito saw a dire wolf teleport in front of him, causing him to draw his sword. He pulled his sword to his side as he activated a sword skill as he continued to run straight at the dire wolf. Without slowing down, Kirito sliced his sword through the dire wolf that made it burst into particles.

"I've got this. I'm not going to lose to this world!" Kirito shouted without stopping his run. "I will survive and find you, Kayaba, and get all the answers I want!"


End file.
